



Glass _ 



Book_E 



HISTOEY 



OF THE 



TOWN OF BURFORD 



OXFORDSHIRE. 



REV. JOHN FISHER, 

LATE CURATE OF BURFORD ; 

P 

AUTHOR OF THE 

HISTORY OE BERKELEY/" GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 



CHELTENHAM: 
PUBLISHED BY R. EDTTARDS, 396, HIGH STREET. 

L861. 









o 









ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL. 



100%1 



x^ 



TO 

, HIS GRACE 

THE DUKE OE ST. ALBANS, 

EARL OE BUREORD, 
AND BARON OF HEDDINGTON, 

ETC. y ETC., ETC. 

THIS VOLUME 

IS, BY PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
BY HIS GBACE's MOST HUMBLE, 

AND MOST OBEDLEXT SERVANT, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The compilation of a local History is always one involving 
much labour and research, but especially so when the in- 
habitants of the Town that is the subject of it do not possess 
any Antiquarian taste and are unable to render the requisite 
information. The Author of this smajl Work has felt this 
difficulty and discouragement, yet he has spared neither toil 
nor zeal in collecting materials, and if they are more scanty 
than he or his Eeaders could have desired it must be attributed 
to the cause above alluded to. Important documents relating 
to the Church-property and Town Charities* in the posses- 
sion of Thomas Cheatle, Esq., have been unreservedly placed 
at his disposal, and to that gentleman he returns his grateful 
thanks for the privilege so kindly accorded. He also begs to 
offer his sincere thanks to W. E. Cooke, Esq., for his liberality « 
in presenting two Illustrations to the Work, and to five other 
kind friends for their contributions towards other Illustrations, 
without which assistance the Work would probably not have 
been published in consequence of the inadequate number of 

* An account of these Charities was published by the Charity- 
Commissioners in the year 1827, and therefore will not be inserted 
in this Work. 



VI. I'll K FACE. 

Subscribers. The Author, finding the place full of Anti- 
quarian interest and devoid of any regular History, undertook 
the task of supplying one, and he trusts it may be acceptable 
to the inhabitants of this ancient town as well as to occasional 
Visitors. 

If it succeed in imparting more interest in the antiquities 
and historical events connected with Burford and the locality 

his object will have been attained. 

\ J. FISHER. 

Wonastow Court, 

I 
Near Monmouth. 

4 Sept. 1861. 



C N T E NTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Town 1 

Privilege of Hunting 9 

Origin of Yert and Venison 11 

Royal Visits ■ 12 

The Trade, Poor-rates, Market, Pairs, and Streets 13,14 

Guildenford, and the Rectory 15 

The Vicarage, and Cob-hall 16 

Inscriptions on houses 17 

Assizes and Sessions, Petty Sessions, Dissenting Chapels, and Popu- 
lation-tables 18 

A Proverb, the Bridge 19 

A curious riddle , " 21 

Of Stones 22 

Kitt's Quarries, aud Sainfoin 23 

A cutting-roller ... 24 

CHAPTER II. 

The Church 25 

West front ... 26 

South porch 27 

The Tower and Steeple ; Curfew-bell 28 

North side and Nave 29 

Pont and North Aisle ... 30 

South Aisle * 31 

St. Thomas's Chapel ; Stone Coffins 32 

Leggare's and Bartholomew's Chapels 33 

The Chancel • 34 

The Vestry, and Tanfield's Chapel 35 

Pynnock's Chapel and Priory Pew 36 

The Churchyard 37 

CHAPTER III. 

The Manor 39 

The battle of Bannockburn « 41 



♦ 



Vlll. CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Earl Despeneer executed as a traitor 42 

Thomas of Woodstock murdered 44 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Priory ; derivation of Harman 51 

Distich on Francis Lord Lovell 52 

The Chapel, the Gardens, and a murder here 54 

CHAPTER Y. 

Eminent Men. 

William Lenthall 56 

His death-bed confession 58 

Oliver Cromwell's two letters to him 60 

Peter Heylyn 71 

Lucius Cary, afterwards Lord Falkland 73 

Slain at the battle of Newbury 75 

The Sortes Virgilianse 77 

Lord Falkland's petition to the King in behalf of his rebellious Son 79 

Marchemont Needam 81 

John Wilmot, afterwards Earl of Rochester 85 

Charles Jenkinson, afterwards Baron of Hawkesbury 88 

William Beechey 90 



CHAPTER VI. 

Miscellaneous Observations. 

The Soil ; Fulbrook Chapelry ; Pancake-bell 

Tables of Benefactions and Inscriptions in the Church 

The Eree-School ..: ... 

The Almshouses ; Getting a prize 

Parish-Registers ; the Vicar 

The Manor of Fulbrook 



93 

94 
96 
97 
98 
99 



Page. 


Line 


3. 


11. 


•1. 


5. 


, 


9. 


8. 


28. 


15. 


27. 


SB. 


23, 


7:5. 


9. 




11. 




24. 


99. 


1. 


105. 


15. 



ERRATA. 

After the word Litchfield a full stop instead of a comma. 

For iEthelhum read /Ethelhun. 

For iEthelliiun read JSthellum. 

Tor parden read pardon. 

For closeby read close by. 

For 173"-) read 1629. 

Alter the word matter a full stop instead of a comma. 

lor Political read Poetical. 

For puplished republished. 

For B13 read dBSl. 

For journed read journej ed. 



HISTORY 



TOWN OF BUEFOED, ETC 



CHAPTER I . 



THE TOWN. 

" c Describe the Borough' — though our idle tribe* 

May love description, can we so describe, 

That you shall fairly streets and buildings trace, 

And all that gives distinction to a place ?" 

Or ABBE. 

Btjkford is a market-town, in the Hundred of Bampton, 
situate on the western extremity of the county of Oxford, 
and seated on a southern ascent on the banks of the river 
Wmdrush, 72 miles from London by the road through 
High Wycombe, and 76 through Henley-on-Thames, 18 
N.W. from Oxford, 7 from Witney, and 22 from Chel- 
tenham. 

This river takes its rise in the Cottswold hills, and 
possesses some abstergent qualities which contribute to 
the whiteness and softness of the excellent and indeed 
unrivalled blankets manufactured at Witney. It is like- 



2 HISTORY OF BURFORD. 

wise celebrated for its Jack, Trout, Eels, and Cray-fish, 
which are plentiful and of the finest quality. 

Burford in Saxon Beorgford. Camden says, Beorg 
means a hill or barrow; hence the derivation of the 
name, a town built on a Beorg or hill, at the bottom of 
which was a, ford, and over which a bridge was built in 
the year 1416. A Roman barrow has never been dis- 
covered here. 

In the Saxon times Ethelred, 7th king of Mercia, 
committed the county of Oxford, as the southern part of 
his kingdom, to Berthwald, his nephew, a son of his 
brother Wulfhere* who under the title of king had the 
command of this county, and who with the joint autho- 
rity of Ethelred convened a Synod here (at Burford) in 
A.D. 685, at which were present the two kings Ethelred 
and Berthwald, Theodore archbishop of Canterbury, 
Sexwulph bishop of Litchfield, Bosel bishop of Worces- 
ter, and others, where king Berthiuald gave by Charter 
to Adhelm, abbot of Malmesbury, forty Cassates of land 
at Sumerford in Wiltshire ; which Adhelm, afterwards 
bishop of Sherborne, now only priest and abbot, was here 
present, and at command of this Synod wrote a book 
against the error of the British Christians in the obser- 
vation of Easter, and other different rites wherein they 
disturbed the peace of the Church : the reading of which 
book reclaimed many of those Britons who were under 
the West Saxons.f 

After this time Oxfordshire was an unmolested part 

* Will. Malms, de Pontif. 1. 5. 

f M.S. Lieger-book of M almesbury. 



THE TOWX. 



of the Mercian kingdom, during the reign of Ethelred 
who repenting of his former life, quits his crown, and 
becomes a monk in the year 704, and of his successor and 
nephew Cenred, 8th king of Mercia, who resigned his 
crown to Ceolred or Cdred, 9th king of Mercia, (Ethel- 
red's son) AD. 709, who makes war with Ina, king of the 
west Saxons, at Wodensburh, in Wiltshire, where the 
victory remained doubtful, prodigious slaughter being 
made in both armies,* the peace was renewed. In the 
year of our Lord 716 Ceolred departed this life, and was 
buried in the Cathedral church of Litchfield, He dying 
without issue, Ethelbald, the son of Alweo, the son of 
Eoppa, the son of Wibba second king of Mercia, was 
advanced to the royal dignity, and was the 10th king of 
Mercia. The first action of consequence performed by 
Mhelbald, was his invasion upon Ethelheard, king of the 
tvest Saxons, in the year 723 ; he besieged his chief 
town of Sommerton, in the county of Somerset, in 
the year 733 ; afterwards he invaded Northumberland, 
A.D. 740, gained great spoils, and returned in triumph 
back again to Mercia. 

He again invaded the %vest Saxons, committed many 
outrages, put several parts of that country under tribute 
and contribution, which so provoked the princes and the 
people that Guthred, successor to Ethelheard, being no 
longer able to endure the proud exactions and inso- 
lences of the Mercian king, raised an army and 
marched into these borders of Mercia in the year 752-f*. 

* Mat. West, sub, an. f Cliron. Sax. 



HISTOKY OF BTJKFORD. 



Here (at Beorgford) king Mhelbald met him,* where 
they began a most desperate battle, which was gained by 
Cuthred. The success in this important battle is said to 
have been chiefly owing to the great valour and conduct 
of jEthelhum, a nobleman of great repute in the king- 
dom, and who had rebelled against his sovereign but was 
pardoned. Mhelbald had a standard whereon was em- 
blazoned a golden dragon, carried before him by JUthel- 
hum, who was killed with a lance by the standard-bearer 
of king Cuthred, which taking of the colours was a great 
encouragement to the west Saxons ; but the victory was 
long depending, and not gained without considerable 
slaughter on either side. 

At last king Mhelbald was forced to fly, his army was 
overthrown with prodigious slaughter, he himself, with 
the remnant, making their escape by a precipitate flight, 
and leaving a joyful victory to Cuthred, who by this de- 
feat gained the greatest part of this county. "f* This 
battle was fought at a place still called Battle-edge, west 
of the town, between it and Upton. In memory of 
Mhelbald's standard being taken, and of this victory, 
there was long a custom here (not within memory) of 
making a dragon yearly, and carrying it up and down 
the 'town with great merriment on midsummer-eve ; to 
which the townsmen added a giant, for what reason not 
known. 

At the time of the Norman Survey, Burford was 
held by Earl Alberic; and after the Conquest it was 
the town of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, whose son 

* Chron. Sax. f Mat. West. 



Tin: towx. 



William had a Charter granted by king Henry II. to 
'*' this his town of Burford/' granting it all the privileges 
of the city of Oxford, " Gilclam et omnes consuetudines 
quas habent liberi Burgenses de Oxeneforde" ; "most 
of which/' Plot writes, " it has since lost, and chiefly by 
the overruling power of Sir Lawrence Tanjield, Lord 
chief Baron in Queen Elizabeth's time : yet it still re- 
tains the face of a Corporation, having a common 
seal," &c. p. 356. Who the succeeding Lords of this 
manor were will be reserved for a separate chapter. 

This town was a very ancient Borough, and according 
to Brown Willis sent a member to Parliament, but was 
relieved from this formerly expensive privilege by 
petition. 

It was governed by two Bailiffs and ten Burgesses, and 
is described in old documents thus, " The Bailiffs and 
Burgesses of Burford/' 

Their duties, however, were neither numerous nor 
onerous. The supervision of some Charities, upon the 
proceeds of one of which, by will of its Founder, they 
feasted in true aldermanic style once a year ;* and the 
presentation to, and visitation of the Grammar School, 
constituted, the author believes, the whole of their 
official duties. They elected a Corporate-body annually, 
though they were clothed mth no magisterial power, nor 
did they support any political importance. 

At a very early period the borough of Burford was a 
place of much consequence, and was considered of suf- 
ficient importance to be from time to time favoured with 

* This custom lias been discontinued some years. 



HISTOKY OF BoKFOlO). 



no less than sixteen charters, the parchments of which 
are still preserved by T. Cheatle, Esq. 

The Corporation has for many years been on the wane 
owing to the non-appointment of fresh members in the 
place of those who died, and in December, 1859, the 
Corporate-body was declared to be extinct ; and the 
management of the many and valuable charities of the 
town was given up to the Charity-Commissioners. In 
the Visitation of the county of Oxford, 1574, the Seal of 
this town is thus entered : a lion rampant guardant 
within a circle, (not on a shield), and on the circle 
Ct Sigilom Commone Borg et vile de Boreforde." This 
seal (together with the mace, now in the possession of T. 
Cheatle, Esq.,) contains a device but not ■ Armorial 
bearings. 

The following are copies of entries in the Burgesses' 
account book : — 

" An 1566. P d to the Kyng of Heraldes for Keges- 
tryng the towne Seale. i?20/' 

" An 1 574 More paid to the Haroulde of Armes for 
oure Seale. ^10." 

Plot says, " the common seal of Burford is the very 
same with Henley-on-Thames, as described in the map, if 
they differ not in colours, which I could not learn/' p. 356. 
He was in error here, since tftte Corporation-seal of Henley 
in 1624 was the letter H, surmounted by the Koyal 
badge, of the rays of the sun issuing from a cloud, 
crowned with this legend : Sigillum villce de Henley. 
With this badge also the money coined at Henley was 
stamped. 




THE TOWN SEAL . 



» HISTORY OF RXIRFORD. 

as the clocks are striking midnight. He has beset some 
hundreds of mutineers, who could only fire some shots 
out of windows, has dissipated the mutiny, trodden down 
the levelling principle out of English affairs once more. 
Here is the last scene of the business. The rigorous 
Court-martial having now sat, the decimated doomed 
mutineers being placed on the leads of the church to see." 
"Thursday, 17th May. This day in Burford church- 
yard, Cornet Thompson was brought to the place of 
execution and expressed himself to this purpose : That 
it was just what did befal him, that God did not own the 
ways he went, that he had offended the General, he de- 
sired the prayers of the people, and told the soldiers who 
were appointed to shoot him that when he held up his 
hands they should do their duty. And accordingly he 
was immediately after the sign given shot to death. 
Next after him was a Corporal brought to the same place 
of execution, where looking upon his fellow-mutineers he 
set his back against the wall and bade them who were 
appointed ' shoot/ and died desperately. The third being 
also a Corporal was brought to the same place and with- 
out the least acknowledgement of error or show of fear 
he pulled off his doublet, standing a pretty distance from 
the wall, he bade the soldiers do their duty looking them 
in the face till they gave fire, not showing the least kind 
of terror, or fearfulness of spirit. Cornet Dean, who now 
came forward as the next to be shot, expressed penitence, 
got parden of the General, and there was no more shoot- 
ing. Lieut-General Cromwell went into the church, 
called down the decimated of the mutineers, rebuked, 



THE TOWff. 9 

admonished, said the General in his mercy had forgiven 
them. ' Go, repent, rebel no more, lest a worse thing 
befal you/ They wept, they retired to Devizes for a 
time, were restored to their Regiments, and marched 
cheerfully for Ireland/' 

The following is extracted from the Register Book in 
Burford church : — 

BURIALS. 

"1649. Three soldiers shot to death in Burford 
churchyard, buried May 17/' 

This town was of note by giving the title. of Earl to 
Charles Beauclair, who was created Baron of Hed- 
dington and Earl of Burford, 27th Dec. 1676; and 
afterwards created Duke of St Albans, whose eldest 
son is by courtesy Earl of Burford. 

PRIVILEGE OF HUNTING. 

The inhabitants of this town formerly claimed the 
privilege of hunting one day in every year in the forest 
of Wyehwood, but during a pestilence in the reign of 
Elizabeth, A.D. 1593, the right was commuted for a 
largess of venison, from a dread of the consequences that 
might result to the public health from the concourse of 
persons that was wont to assemble, A gift of a pair of 
Bucks without the hunting of them was substituted, and 
was for many years perpetuated. " On the afternoon of 
every Whitsunday," writes Mr. Brewer, " the Church- 
wardens accompanied by many of the inhabitants go in 
a kind of procession to Cap's Lodge plain within the 



10 HISTORY OF BTJRFORD. 

borders of the forest where they choose a Lord and a 
Lady who are generally a boy and a girl of Burford. 
These titular personages formally demanded of one or 
more of the keepers of the forest (who always attend for 
the purpose) a brace of best bucks and a fawn without 
fee or reward with their horns and hoofs for the use of 
the town of Burford to be delivered on due notice pre- 
viously given for that purpose. 

About the first week in August the- Bucks were sent 
for, and a venison feast is provided by the Churchwardens, 
which is held in the Town-hall, and is usually attended 
by some hundreds of persons. 

The expenses of this gala are defrayed by the com- 
pany, and many of the neighbouring gentry usually 
graced the hall with their presence/' 

The custom of choosing the Lord and Lady was aban- 
doned about the year 1827 in consequence of the gross 
improprieties it led to on such a solemn feast of the 
church as Whitsunday, but the Bucks were claimed and 
regularly sent till about the year 1854. 

In ] 857, when the disafforestation of the forest was 
nearly completed, a grant of i?150 was made to the 
Town in lieu of the Bucks. This sum was expended to- 
wards defraying a debt incurred by the Corporation. 

The following is a copy of a letter in the possession of 
Mr. John Banbury, late Parish Clerk : — 

" From y e Lords of y e Counsell in y e Kaigne of Queen 
ELIZABETH concerning our Hunting/' 

"After our harty commendcons. Whereas it is her 
Ma tys expresse commandment y* all assemblys w ch are 




JOHN E 



RY 3 






THE TOWN. 11 

not of necessitie and for y e benefit of y e comonwealth, be 
forborne in this dangerous time of infecon of y e Plague 
w ch spreadeth y 1 selfe in many places, whereby yf great care 
be not had to keepe the people of this Realme from un- 
necessarie assemblys y 1 is thought y fc great, mortalitie will 
*ensue. And whereas you of y e Towne of Burford by an 
ancyent custom have hunting within her Ma 1 ? 8 Forest 
of Wichwood, in y e countie of Oxon, on Whitsunday, by 
reason whereof many people of divers Townes whereof 
some are infected will be drawn together to y e hassard of 
many her Ma^ s subjects. These are therefore in her 
Ma^ s name to require y w to forbear your hunting there 
for this year, and order shall be given to y e Keepers of 
y e s d Forest, to deliver unto y w two Bucks, to be spent 
amongst y w at your owne disposicon, besides this your 
forbearing for this time shall not be any prejudice to 
your s d ancyent custome hereafter. And thus not doubt- 
ing of your accomplishment hereof being her Ma tys plea- 
sure and required only for your saftie wee comitt y w to 
God from Nonsuche y e xx th of May 1593. 
Your loving friends, 
H. Derby. Henry Howard, 

J. Pickering. J. Fortesctje. 

R Cecyll. J. Walley. 

To our loving friends the BaylifTs and other the 
companie and Inhabitants of the Towne of Burford/' 

Origin of the custom of Vert and Venison. 
Vert, or green hue, in Forest-law, anything that grows 
and bears a green leaf within the forest, that may cover 
a deer. 



12 HISTORY OF BFKFOKP. 

ROYAL VISITS. 

From the Burgesses' Account-book the following : — - 

" The yeare of our Lorde God A 1574. The Shew daye 
beinge the 3rd daye of Auguste the Queenes Maiestye 
came from Langley* throughe the Towne of Burforde 
where shee was Reseved at the Bridge by the Baylyffes 
then beinge Rycharde Heynoldes and Rycharde Chad- 
well and Symon Wysdom alderman w th all the Burgess 
of the same Towne p r sentinge her Grace w th a purse of 
gowlde and xx fi anngells in the same purse." 

From the Churchwardens Account-books the follow- 
ing:— 

"1645. Payed for Ringinge when the Kinge came 
first to Burford. 5s." 

" 1681. Pd. the Ringers on the 17th March the time 
the King came to Burford. £1." 

" 1687. Pd. the Ringers when the King came through 
the Town. £\ „ „ 0." 

Macaulay, in his History of England, writes thus : — 
" A.r>. 1695. The next morning the king, accompanied 
by a multitude of Warwickshire gentlemen on horseback, 
proceeded towards the borders of Gloucestershire. He 
deviated from his route to dine with Shrewsbury at a 
secluded mansion in the Wolds, and in the evening went 
on to Burford.f The whole population of Burford met 

* Langley is about a mile from Burford, and was formerly much 
frequented by the Kings and Queens of England. 

f The king remained at the Priory here this night, Nov. 5. 



THE TOWN. 13 

him, and entreated him to accept a small token of their 
love. Burford was then renowned for its saddles. One 
inhabitant of the town, in particular, was said by the 
English to be the best saddler in Europe. Two of his 
master-pieces were respectfully offered to William, who 
received them with much grace, and ordered them to be 
specially reserved for his own use/' 

Yol. IV. p. 612. 1st Edition. 1855. 
Vol VII. p. 242, 2nd Edition. 1858. 

Here was once a thriving trade, but at the present 
day it is a quiet and insignificant place, becoming yearly 
of less importance. Before Railroads intersected the county 
the traffic through the town was very considerable, and 
numerous coaches passed and repassed through it daily ; 
the manufacture of coarse woollen-cloths was very great ; 
and in the early part of the last century great quantities 
of malt* were made here and conveyed to London by 
the river Thames* from Radcot-Bridge, b near Faring- 
don, Berks. The fact of a Railroad not touching the 
town (the nearest Station is at Shipton-under-Wychwood, 
5 miles distant), and only two coaches running daily 
(Sundays excepted) to and from Oxford and Cheltenham, 
necessarily deprive it of its trade. 

The sign of this decline in its importance is visible 
everywhere ; and a writer upon Oxfordshire has truth- 
fully observed, " Burford has diminished in wealth and 
importance from the decay of the coarse woollen manu- 
facture, and the malting business^ which once flourished 

* Malt mills of stone first made here by Valentine Strange. 
a See Note A. b See Note B. 



14 HISTOEY OF BTJRFOKD. 

there, and from the diminished traffic along the line of 
road which passes through the town." 

Its woollen-factories, and its paper and fulling-mills on 
the Windrush, are no more ; and the manufacture of 
Harness which once flourished here has shared in the 
general decay. 

In consequence of want of trade the Poor-rates have 
been very high ; — in 1818 and 1819 there were 19 rates 
at Is. in the pound each year ; in 1820, 1821, 1822, and 
1823 there were 20 rates at Is. in the pound each year. 
They have not been anything like so high of late years. 

Here is a weekly market on Saturday, when much 
business is done at the corn-market ; and three annual 
fairs, viz. : — the last Saturday in April, for cattle and 
sheep ; July 5, for horses, sheep, and cows : and Sept. 
25, for sheep, cows, and toys : this fair was originally 
for cheese and toys. 

The town consists of three streets, viz. : — High Street, 
intersected by Sheep Street and Witney Street, which 
form a cross ; and four lanes, viz. : — Mullender, now 
called Swan ; Priory, Church, and Lawrence. 

The Causeways are bad, uncovered drains from the 
houses flowing over them, and consequently very dirty ; 
the houses are ancient for the most part, built in the 
reign of Elizabeth ; and the High Street is profusely 
studded with archways of various architecture leading 
into houses, courts, and alleys. 

The immense number of public-houses,* 16, (19 last 

* See Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1803, Vol. 73, Page 
198, for an account of Arthur Barry Shears an Irish gentleman 



THE TOWBT. 15 

year) at once strikes the eye of the stranger who visits 
this town, but upon enquiry he finds that the majority of 
the landlords are engaged in trade. 

At the corner of Sheep Street, facing the High Street, 
still stands the old Tolsey with its lock-up-cells, and the 
stocks adjoining, now disused. 

Opposite this is a very old and picturesque house, with 
its gable-ends handsomely ornamented with wood work. 

In Witney Street is a fine old chapel, the middle of 
which has been pulled down and a public-house inserted 
instead ; one end is occupied by a labourer, the other is 
not used ; and the fine spiral wood chimney is worthy of 
notice. 

Leading from this street is Guildenford, a road to the 
church and lower end of the town. At the bottom of 
Guildenford is the river Wind-rush with its ford, hence 
the author considers this name was derived from the 
custom of passengers paying toll ; or it might have been 
in connection with the ancient Guild, Gildam to pay, be- 
cause each member of the society was to pay something 
towards the charge and support of the company. The 
Guild* or company, of our ancestors answered to our 
modern Corporations — the Guild of Burford is now no 
more, as has been observed before. 

At the end of Priory-lane is the Eectory, a fine old 
stone mansion, now occupied by W. Waller, Esq. ; and 
closeby is the Priory, to be mentioned hereafter. 

travelling with his wife and lodging at the Bull Inn on retiring to 
rest about 10 o'clock blew his brains out with a pistol. 
c See Note C. d See Note D. 



16 HISTOHY OF UUKFORD. 

At the corner of this lane, facing the High Street, is 
a large old stone house with a beautiful Oriel window, 
formerly known as the Bear Inn, but now much dila- 
pidated and let out' in tenements. Lower down the 
High Street and on the same side is situated the Vicarage, 
on which is the date 1672, a large and commodious house. 

Adjoining this is a very ancient and large building 
called Cob-Hail* but what it has originally been can- 
not at this distance of time be discovered. The earliest 
Deed the author has been able, after very diligent search, 
to find is, George Symons' will dated 19 Jan. 1590, in 
which he gives "my no we dwellinge house in Burford 
called Cob-hall to the poore of the Parish/' &c,, &c. By 
six subsequent Leases (the first of which is dated 1 May 
1650) the author has ascertained that this house was 
converted into an Inn called The Swan ; the last Lease 
bears date 10 Dec. 1717, when it was again let for the 
term of 21 years. It has, however, not been an Inn 
within the memory of man, and is now occupied by three 
poor families, and the Boys' National School. 

*Upon an old house at the foot of the Bridge, in the oc- 
cupation of Edward Ansell, Currier, is the following 
inscription : — 

SYMON WYSDOMf ALDERMAN 

THE EYRST EOUNDER OE THE SCHOLE 

* Cob in old Dictionaries has several meanings attached to it ; 
among others that of a Swan, hence the author conceives that when 
it became an Inn it was called " the Swan." 

f In or about the year 1530, "Simon Wisdom, of Burford was 
charged in judgment for having three books in English, one was the 



THE TOWN. 17 

IN BUREORD GAYE THES TENEMENTS 
WYTHE OTHER TO THE SAME SCHOLE 
IN AN. 1577. AND NEWLY REEDYEYED 
AND BUYLDED THE SAME IN AN. 1576. 
ALL LAWDE AND PRAYSE BE GEVEN 
TO GOD THER EORE. AMEN. 

On a stone in the wall of the Grammar-School in 
Church-lane is the following inscription : — 

ALL LAUDE AND PRAISE BE TO GOD 
Ao R REGL$ DE ELIZABETH XXI 
SYMON WYSDOM ALDER- * 

MAN OE BUREORD REEDYEIED 
AND BUYLDED THIS HOUSE 
A° Do* 1579. 

w 

The stone on which the above inscription is was re- 
moved from the Wysdom Almshouse in this Lane by the 
Rev. F. Knollys, a former Vicar, and after his death it 
being found in the Vicarage-house was inserted in the 
School-house wall. 

On the Almshouses in Church-Green is this inscription : 

THESE ALMSHOUSES 

WERE EOUNDED BY 

RICHARD EARL OE WARWICK 

IN THE YEAR 1457. 

AND WERE REBUILT 

IN THE YEAR 

1828. 

Gospels in English, another was the Psalter, the third was the sum 
of the holy Scripture in English." 

Eoxe's Acts and Monuments. 

Seymour's Edition, p. 503. 

D 



HISTOKY OF BUEFOED. 



There are two or three very good and substantial 
private residences in the town, evidently built within the 
last 150 years. 

The Assizes and Sessions. 

From the Churchwatdens' Account-book it is proved 
that Assizes were held here, the following is a copy of 
an entry therein*: — 

"1637. To the Singers the 14th of July when the 
Judges did keepe the Assizes here/' It is also recorded 
therein^ some years later, that Sessions were held here 
at the Epiphany, Easter, Trinity, and Michaelmas Terms, 
yearly. 

Petty Sessions are held at the Savings' Bank (which 
was established in the year 1826) by the Magistrates of 
the Western division of the Hundred of Bampton the 
last Saturday of every month, and that day fortnight 
previous. 

The Wesleyan Chapel, having a very handsome stone 
front, is situate in the High Street, and has a Burial- 
ground attached. This Chapel was formerly a gentle- 
man's mansion, from whom it was purchased by the 
Wesley cms in the year 1849. There is a Baptist Chapel 
in Wiimey Street, with a Burial-ground ; and there is a 
sect called Plymouth Brethren. 

The following is an extract from the Population 
Tables — Burford Township : — 

1801. 1811. 1821.- 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 



Total.. 1516. 1342. 1409. 1620. 1644. 1593. 1434. 
Males. . 748. 634. 691. 781. 812. 771. 703. 



THE TOWN. 19 

A Proverb. 

" To take a Burford-bait" was a proverbial expression, 
which signified not to stay the stomach, but to over- 
charge it by an intemperate meal. 

NATURAL HISTORY. 
The Bridge. 

The following inscription was formerly in the West 
window of St. Katherine's Aisle, St. Helen's Church, 
Abingdon, Bucks ; but it was destroyed during the Civil 
Wars, when Waller's horse used the Aisle for stabling : 

cc Henricus quintus quarto fundaverat anno,* 
» Rex pontem Burford super undas atque CuLhamford. 

ejus Abingdonise mauet annis 

demise 
Pontem sit fundans, in caelo Rex sit habundans, 
M. Domini que quater, C. Sextus, tumque de 

On the day of St. Albone, one Howchum layd the first stone, 
And never fayled to the end, to heaven mot his soul wend. 

Pray for the soule of Geffrey Barber, 

Eor he was the bridge's greatest helper, 

Pray for the soule of Thomas Tickhill, Mercer, 

Eor he was to the bridge a good helper, 

Pray for the soule of Wry. Wesley, 

Eor his good " 

So though Henry V. had the honour of building Bur- 

* These lines are alluded to by Camden, and the two first printed 
in a note by Gough, I. 147. 



20 HISTORY OF BUEFOHD. 

ford and Culhamford bridges, the former was begun by- 
Sir John, of St. Helen's, and Geffrey Barber was a large 
contributor, and indeed principal founder to both and to 
the causeway between them, as appears at large by a 
tablet still banging in the Hall of Christ's Hospital, 
Abingdon, the inscription on which is printed at length 
in a long note of Hearne, to Leland, VII. p. 79, 80. 

Another account from Ex tabula pensili : 

"Anno 4. Henrici V. pontes de Bordforde et Culham- 
forde prope Abbandune incepti sunt autove rege anno 
Bom. 1416." 

Though king Henry the 5th is here said to be the 
Founder not only of Bur ford, but of Culhamford bridge, 
yet this is to be understood only by way of compliment, 
and it is grounded only upon the liberty given by him 
for building the bridges, and upon some other small pri- 
vileges that he allowed at this time. For it is certain 
that John, of St. Helen's, was the first beginner of Bur- 
ford bridge, to the maintenance of which and of the 
Hospital of St. Helen's that he had founded, he left an 
estate in land of 50 pounds a year. 

Leland } s Itin. Vol. VII. p. 71. 

The Author informs the Reader thai there still exists, 
in the Hall of Christ's Hospital, Abingdon, the original 
table describing the circumstances connected with the 
building of the bridges. 

The Latin portion of it is as follows : — 

" Henrici quinti regis quarto revoluto 

Anno, rex idem pontem fundavifc utrumque, 
Supra locum binum Borford dictumq. Culhamford. 



THE TOWN. 21 

Tuter eos namque via regia tendit alta. 
Amiis adjunctis dat inter gradientibus amplum : 
Principium cujus Abendonise situatur. 
Armis tunc donum M. quater C. numeratis. 
Et seato deno cum fecit opus pietatis. 
Yos qui transitis hujus memores bene sitis. 
Et vestris peccibus ftmdator sit relevatus." 
Then follows a black-letter metrical narrative, which 
is too long to copy. It mentions that the first stone was 
laid on St. Alban's day, by John Huchum, that Sir Peris 
Besillis, Knight, gave the stones for the building, that 
JerTray Barbour paid the workmen, and many other de- 
tails of the work. And it ends with this curious riddle : G 
" Take the ferst letter of youre foure- 
fader with A, the worker of wex, and 
I, and N 3 the colore of an asse ; set 
them togeder, and tell me if you can, 
what is it than. Richard Eannande 
Iremonger hath made this tabul. And 
set it here in the yere of King Henry 
the Sexte. XXXVPe ." 

The following account is from the Gentleman's Maga- 
zine for Oct. 1797. Vol. 67. Part 2. Page 880. 

" Burford, Sept. 13, 1797. Yesterday this town and its 
neighbourhood was visited by one of the most violent 
storms ever remembered. 

It came on about 9 P.M. the wind being in a south- 
westerly direction, and blowing very roughly, At ten 
the rain descended in torrents, mixed with hail-stones of 
an uncommonly-large size, and accompanied with very 

e Those who cannot guess this riddle will find the answer to it 
under Note E. 



22 HISTORY OF BITKFOKD. 

tremendous thunder and lightning. In about two hours 
the thunder and lightning went off, the rain still con- 
tinuing to pour down in a degree not remembered in this 
place by the oldest inhabitant. We have not heard of 
any damage from the lightning ; but, in consequence of 
the heavy fall of rain, the Windrush, a small river near 
this place, was so much swelled in course of the night, 
as to carry away the bridge between this town and 
FuUbrook." 

Of Stones. 

There are stones called Brontice and Ombrice found in 
great abundance at Tangley, Fullbrook, and about Bur- 
ford, but not in beds together like some other formed 
stones. Though its innermost texture seem to be nothing 
more than a coarse Bubble-stone, yet it is cased over 
with a fine laminated substance (the plates lying 
obliquely) much like Lapis Judaicus. In form they 
are flat, depressed upon the basis ; in colour generally 
yellow, their rays made of a double rank of transverse 
lines, with void spaces between them, visible enough on 
the top of the stone, but not so distinguishable on the 
bottom. The whole body of the stone, as well as the 
spaces included within the rays, being elsewhere filled 
with annulets, much more curiously wrought by nature 
than they could be by the Engraver's tools. 

These stones were thought (by the vulgar at least) to 
be generated in the clouds and discharged thence in the 
times of thunder and violent showers ; for which very 
reason the ancient Naturalists coined them suitable 
names, and called such as they were pleased to think fell 



THE TOWN. 23 

in the thunder, Brontice ; and those that fell in showers, 
Ombrice. ' Plot, 91, par. 30, 31. 

Kitt's Quaeeies. 

About half a mile south-west from Burford are St. 
Christopher's or Kitt's Quarries, which produced fine 
stone for building St. Paul's, London. 

This stone was chiefly used for Columns, Capitals, 
Bases, Window-lights, Door-cases, Cornicing, Mould- 
ings, &c. ; it being whiter and harder, and carries a 
much finer arris, than that at Heddington Quarry ; but 
yet is not so hard as that at Taynton, nor will it like 
that endure the fire, of which they make Malt-kilns, 
and Hearths for Ovens. Plot. 76. par. 26. 

These Quarries have not been worked for many years, 
and the cavities (which are numerous) being covered with 
moss and grass present a remarkably-pretty appearance, 
and are much frequented by Picnic-parties. Here stands 
an old-fashioned stone house with the following inscrip- 
tion above one of the windows : — 

Christopher Kempster built 
this in 1698. 

This small estate still belongs to the Kempster family ; 
an ancestor of which was employed in building St. Paul's, 
and having saved money purchased this property, and 
lived the remainder of his life here. 

Sainfoin. 
Onobrychis spicata flore purpureo, semine echinato, 
commonly called Sainct-foin, or everlasting grass, but 
according to the learned Dr. Morison the true Lucem, is 



24 H1ST0KY OF BURFOED. 

sown about here, and is recommended as an excellent 
fodder for Beasts which are made fat with it in the spring- 
time in eight or ten days. 

This artificial grass grows to a large extent in this 
neighbourhood, and some years ago one-seventh of the 
arable-land was under Sainfoin. 

A Cutting-Roller. 

• 

When Mr. Young surveyed this county, and noticing 
the implements of Husbandry observed that, at Burford 
" a cutting-roller has been invented, composed of twelve 
wheels, two and a half inches thick, and between them a 
space of two and a half inches. They are three feet 
diameter. The inventor loads them so as to be sufficient 
work for six oxen, and passes them over wheat after it is 
sown, or after it is up ; and, if dry, cross and cross. In 
spring he has used it also upon wheat ; it leaves the sur- 
face rough in diamonds, which he finds useful." 

Probably this gave the idea of Crosskiirs Clod- 
crusher. 




WEST DOOR. 

BURFORD CHURCH, OXON. 



(25) 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CHURCH. 

In a country-town the church is generally the first 
attraction for a stranger. Even to those who are not 
antiquarians, the examination of such edifices is always 
pleasant and gratifying, especially when the mind is 
impressed with the fact that they were raised by the 
labours of our forefathers. 

The church of Burford, dedicated to St. John the 
Baptist, is a Vicarage in the patronage of the Lord 
Bishop of Oxford. The edifice is cruciform, and has a 
Norman tower in the centre surmounted by a fine and 
tall Spire. It is a noble structure, consisting of a long 
and lofty Nave, one Aisle on the North side, and two on 
the South the exterior of which was evidently added at 
a later period, a Parvise, a Chapel adjoining now called 
Burgesses' Aisle, a Tower, two Transepts each divided 
into two Chapels, a Chancel, and Vestry. 

The Author considers it to be by far the largest and 
handsomest building in its own Neighbourhood, though 
evidently erected at different periods. 

The style of architecture for the most part is Perpen- 
dicular. The West-doorway and lower part of the Tower 



26 HISTOEY OF BTTKFORD. 

are evidently the only parts of the original church which 
was Norman. 

It was new-pewed in the year 1827, when a Gallery 
was erected in the North Aisle. 

" The Earl of Essex and his rebels lay in the Church 
the 6th of June, 1644, and used it with the greatest 
incivility. Amongst the rest, they took down the pen- 
nons and flags hanging over this Baron's* monument, 
and wore them for Scarfs." 

Topogr. vol. I. p. 416. 

About 150 years ago a Cut was made from the Bridge, 
deviating from the river and flowing round the North 
side and East end of the Churchyard, for the purpose of 
working a Mill at the bottom of Witney Street, in con- 
sequence of which the Church and Churchyard in very 
high floods were formerly in part under water. This 
happened in the years 1795 and 1809. Floodgates 
were afterwards adopted, and the like inconvenience 

prevented. 

West Front. 

The doorway is Norman, the outer moulding of which 
is adorned with Norrruin zigzag or Dogtooth, and the 
inner moulding is decorated with human and animal 
heads. 

The pillars, two oh each side, are twisted Norman. 
This archway was brought here when the present Nave 
was built, as is evident from the internal construction. 
The window above is a good Perpendicular of five lights, 
and was most likely originally full of exceedingly rich 

* Baron Tanfield. 



THE CHURCH. 27 

stained glass, but now only a small portion of it remains. 
The original designs, which doubtless were very beautiful, 
have been much pieced with fragments of the other 
windows, and the only traceable figures are St. George 
and the Dragon. 

The South Porch. 

This Porch is of beautiful Gothic architecture, the 
Spandrils of the Arch contain quatrefoils ; there are three 
richly ornamented Niches in the Parvise above it, each 
filled with a figure which were defaced in Cromwell's 
time ; and above are Pinnacles and rich canopies. The 
inside of this Porch is singularly elegant, consisting of 
arched sides, with six pilasters, from whence spring the 
ribs of the roof of rich framework, meeting together, and 
filled in the vacant spaces with quatrefoils. 

This fine groined roof is similar to that in the Cloisters 
of Gloucester Cathedral ; and on entering the Church 
from this Porch the Visitor should notice the two Gothic 
arches (one on each side), and the elbow-capitals of the 
columns, very good and uncommon. 

Above this Porch are two Stories, a room in each, 
formerly occupied by the Priest, noiv called the Muni- 
ment-rooms in which the Deeds belonging to the Church 
and Corporation are kept. Access to these rooms is 
obtained by a turret-staircase from Burgesses' Aisle, and 
in the first of which is a very handsome old oak chest 
and six oak chairs. These rooms are lighted by two 
windows in each. 



28 HISTOBY OF BUEF0KD. 

The Tower and Steeple. 

The present Steeple and upper part of the Tower were 
evidently built upon the original Norman tower at a later 
period, and this fact is established by the windows running 
parallel with the Nave being of rich Norman. 

The following is a copy of an entry in the Church- 
wardens' book beginning with the year 1624 : — 

" 1663. Paid William Wethin of Slymbridge, in the 
county of Glous Tyler for poyn tinge the Steeple and sett 
up a new Pinnacle on the turret. £]Q „ 10 „ 0." 

The staircase to the tower is in the south-west angle, 
and entering Leggare's Chapel from this point the Visitor 
will notice two Norman pillars with capitals. 

This tower is a massive and venerable structure, with 
fine Norman arches to support the steeple which is ex- 
quisitely built and has not any obstruction to the apex. 
It contains six bells. The old custom of tolling the 
curfew-bell at eight o'clock every night from the first 
Monday after old Michaelmas-day till Lady-day, yearly, 
is kept up here. The curfew-bell was so called because 
it was rung by a law of William the Conqueror, that all 
persons should then cover their lights and fires, and go to 
bed. The ascribed imposition of the curfew custom, as 
a specimen of the Conqueror's rigid sway, merits but 
little credence. 

Thomson has thus described this supposed act of 
tyranny : — 

" The shiv'ring wretches, at the curfew sound, 
Dejected sunk into their sordid beds, 
And, through the mournful gleam of better times, 
Mus'd sad, or dreamt of better." 



THE CHTTKCH. 29 

" Oft, on a flat of rising ground 
I hear the far-off curfew sound." 

Milton. 
And Gray's Elegiac mention of the curfew is as familiar 
as " household words" : 

" The curfew tolls the knell of parting day." 
The old practice of ringing the Communion-bell after 
sunset on the eve of the Celebration of the Holy Com- 
munion is also observed here. 

The Nokth Side. 

The North side of the Church is much more regular 

in design than the South, being all perpendicular and 

built at the same time. 

The Visitor entering the church at the Western door 

finds himself in 

The Nave, 

which is spacious and terminated at the East end by a 

low tower arch ; above which is the Organ, erected in 

the year 1827. 

It is 70 feet long, by 23 feet wide. 

The Nave itself is perpendicular. 

There are five arches on each side, and the six pillars 
which support them are each a cluster of four columns of 
the same design ; the capitals are the same, and above 
them are heads of grotesque device. 

Above the third pillar (counting from the east end) is 
a Fresco of Saint Christopher/ now concealed by white- 
wash. The space above the arches is unusually great 
and contains five perpendicular Clerestory windows. 

/ See Note I. 



30 H1STOKY OF BTTRFOKD. 

The roof is a wooden one, but was ceiled many years ago ; 
the corbels on which it rests are ornamented with heads ; 
and the pendant-posts are very rich and worth un- 
covering. 

Close to the western door is 

The Font, 
which is perpendicular and hexagonal ; it has a great 
deal of sculpture on it, a representation of the Crucifixion, 
the Evangelists, &c, &c. 

The Author considers it .to belong to the end of the 
fourteenth century ; the base and bason of it are cir- 
cular, which was very uncommon at that period. 
On the leaden bason is inscribed : 

Anthony e Sedley, Prisner 1649. 

During the Civil Wars of the 17th century detach- 
ments of the contending armies were frequently at 
Burford! 

In the Parish-register are notices of the burial of 
several soldiers who were slain then. 

In the year 1758, 186 persons died in Burford of 
small-pox, and were buried in the churchyard. See Ee- 
gister of Burials of that date with "SP" opposite the 
names of those who so died. 

The North Aisle. 

This Aisle is 70 feet long, by 13 feet 3 inches wide. 
It is lighted by a perpendicular three-light window at 
the west end ; and by five perpendicular three-light win- 
dows in the north wall, the third of which counting from 
the east-end is concealed by a very ugly mural stone 



THE CHURCH. 31 

monument of strange architecture, erected to the memory 
of Edmund Harman/ Esq. 

The South Aisle. 

This Aisle was evidently the same as the North one, 
and projecting from which southwards is the Parvise or 
South Porch before described, and St. Thomas's Chapel 
now called Burgesses' Aisle. 

The roofs of these Aisles are of the same character as 
that of the Nave, and were ceiled at the same time. 

This Aisle is 70 feet long by 10 feet 3 inches wide. 

An Aisle called Sylvester's was added to it and the 
Parvise most probably in the sixteenth century. It con- 
tains a number of peculiar mural monuments to a family 
of that name, after whom it was probably nominated. 

It is 60 feet 8 inches long, by 23 feet 7 inches wide, 
and is lighted by four perpendicular four-light windows^ 
with a large perpendicular window at the west end com- 
prising seven lights. 

The entrance doorway at the west end is a low Tudor 
arch, with a massive original door studded with nails. 

In the south-west angle of this Aisle is a turret-tower 
leading to the leads, upon which the author is of opinion 
the decimated doomed Mutineers were placed in Crom- 
well's time, an account of which mutiny is given in the 
first chapter of this work. 

The western portion of this Aisle, 26 feet 9 inches 
long and 23 feet 7 inches wide, is not Pewed. In it is a 
stone altar-tomb with a Coat of Arms upon it but not 

g See Note G. 



32 HISTOEY OF BURFOED. 

any inscription. There is also here a large stone coffin,* 

betokening the entombment of some personage, which 

was discovered in 1814 about a mile from Burford when 

a new road was being made from Upton to Little Bar- 

rington. ^ m ' 

St. Thomas's Chapel, 

now called Burgesses' Aisle, is on the east side of the 
Parvise, and was till lately occupied by the Corporation. 
It has undergone various mutilations. In the east end 
was a Gothic window, the upper part of which is blocked 
up, and in the lower part there is an Elizabethan window 
of six lights but in which there is not any glass. It is 
lighted by one perpendicular window of four lights, in 
which are fragments of painted glass of which it was 
originally undoubtedly full. Underneath this window 
is a Sedilia, adjoining which is a large Piscina and 
above this a handsome bracket on which most likely an 
image stood. Adjoining this Chapel on the east end is the 

South Transept, 

divided into two chapels called Leggare's and Bar- 
tholomew's. 

* Stone coffins were used in this country as late as the eleventh 
and twelfth centuries, the covers of these were simply coped, like 
the one in this church. Erom the size and appearance of this coffin, 
and from the circumstance of its being found near to Battle Edge, it 
may be presumed it was deposited there after the battle between 
ffihelhald and Cuthred before noticed. When found it contained 
some bones of a human body, and portions of a leathern cuirass 
studded with metal nails, completely oxidated and matted together : 
these remains were then forwarded to the British Museum, London, 
by the Yicar of Burford. 



THE CHURCH. 33 

Leggare's Chapel, 

commonly and erroneously called Baker's Aisle, is lighted 
by two perpendicular windows of three lights. In it is 
the beautiful grey marble altar-tomb of John Leggare, 
which is ornamented with kneeling figures on the sides, 
but from which the brasses and shields have been re- 
moved. Below the window in the east wall is a small 
Piscina. The roof is a good wooden one. In a groove 
of the stonework which forms the lancet-shaped arch of 
the south window, on the outside, is the following inscrip- 
tion* : 

" ORASE PRO ANIMABUS ET MATRIS JOHANNIS 
LEGGARE DE BOREORD PER QUEM ISTA 
FENESTRA DECORETUR." 

This John Leggare, who beautified the window with 
painted glass (not a fragment of which remains), lies 
buried near his window under the above-mentioned 
altar-tomb. Adjoining this is 

Bartholomew's Chapel, 

so called because it contains a number of memorials to a 
family of that name. It is entered from the last men- 
tioned chapel through a debased archway. It is- lighted 
by three perpendicular three-light windows in the south 
wall, and one perpendicular of five lights in the east 
wall. It has a good wooden roof. Two debased arches, 

* The first word of this inscription ought to be Orate — the error 
arose from the negligence of the stone-cutter, Every letter of it Ls 
in old English. 

F 



34 HISTORY OF BURFOKD. 

enclosed with wooden screens, separate it from the Chan- 
cel. These two Chapels are thus mentioned in an 
Harleian Manuscript in the British Museum, London ; 
"Burford, June 9th, 1660. 

In the Chapel on the south side, these arms in the 
windows. 

France and England quartered. 

Or. a Chevron G. 

Or. a Cross G. 

In another Chapel on the same side, a grey marble 
monument. The arms upon it not discernable." 

M.S. Brit. Bibl Had 4170. P. 36, &a 

The Chancel. 

The interior of this Church is seen to the best effect 
from the great Western door, yet this view is greatly 
broken from the lowness of the Norman arches of the 
Tower which separate the body of the church from the 
chancel. 

The east window, a poor specimen, is a large perpen- 
dicular one of five lights, with very beautiful rich stained 
glass in the upper part of it. On each side of this win- 
dow there was an image with a canopy above, most 
probably destroyed in the time of the Commonwealth ; 
the Niches alone remain. The North window is Early 
English, blocked up when the Vestry was added to the 
chancel. The South window is a three-light perpen- 
dicular one. The roof was ceiled many years ago, at the 
same time the Nave was. 

This chancel is 45 feet 8 inches long, and 20 feet 
9 inches wide. 



THE cHtmcfl. 85 

The Vestry. 

The Vestry on the North side of the chancel is entered 
by a Tudor doorway, with a quatrefoil in each Spandril. 
It has a debased window of three-lights, and beneath it 
a stone altar. 

In England the altars were generally taken down in or 
about the year 1550. They were set up again in the 
beginning of the reign of Queen Mary, and again re- 
moved in the second year of Queen Elizabeth. The 
ancient stone altars were so carefully destroyed, either at 
this period or in the subsequent devastations of the 
Puritans, that it has been frequently said there is not 
one to be found in England ; but a few of them, and 
some of the Chantry-altars, in the aisles and chapels of 
churches have escaped. 

The ceiling is debased, but handsome. Here is a 
Piscina with four holes ; — very uncommon, 

Adjoiuing this Vestry is 

Tanfield's Chapel,* 

entered through a wooden-screen, which divides it from 
the chancel, beneath a debased arch similar to and op- 
posite the first arch on the south side. It is lighted by 
two perpendicular three-light windows in the north wall, 

* Lady Tanfield, by Will dated June, 1739, devised a house, 
garden, &c, on the North side of Sheep Street, the profits thereof 
yearly to be disposed of for " the repairing maintaining and cleansing 
the tomb of her husband and of the Aisle of Burford church wherein 
it stood." This property was purchased by J. S. Price, Esq., the 
Tenant, July 1860. 



9$ HISTORY OF BUKFOED. 

and one perpendicular window of four lights in the east 
wall. 

In this chapel is a most stately monument/* which the 
author describes in the Appendix. 

Pynnock's Chapel. 

This Chapel, adjoining the above one, is on the north 
side of the Tower, from which it is entered through a de- 
based arch. It is lighted by one perpendicular three- 
light window in the north wall. The roof is a good 
wooden one. This Chapel is thus noticed in the Church- 
wardens' book : — 

"1648 P d for mendinge a spoute ag st Pynnocks 
Chappell. 8s." 

A debased arch at the west end leads into 
The Priory Pew, 
in which is a debased chapel, with its altar and stoop ; 
and a similar arch opposite to it leads into Tanfield's 
chapel. This pew belongs to the Priory estate. 

Such, then, is the Author's accurate description of the 
present appearance and architectural character of this 
large and handsome edifice. Our ancient churches have 
received a greater share of the munificence, talents, and 
labours of our forefathers than most other buildings. In 
them we find such testimonies of piety, such traces of 
simple trustfulness, such hopefulness : — 

" The place is purified with hope, 
The hope that is of prayer ; 
And human love, and heavenward thought, 
And pious faith are there." 

h See Note H. 



THE CUXRCH. 37 

The Churchyard. 

The churchyard, where so many of 

" The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep/ 5 

is a large piece of ground, the south side of which is 
densely crowded with Gravestones, amongst which are 
some ugly and peculiar old mural Altar-tombs. The 
epitaphs on the old Tomb-stones are illegible except the 
two following ones. 

On a brass fixed to the head of an Altar-tomb, oppo- 
site the south porch, is this inscription : — 

" I know that my Redeemer liveth." 

" Here lyeth the body of John Hunt of Burford 
Mercer who deceased 15 Mar. in the year 
of our Lord God. 1603. Wm. Hunt and Richard 
Hunt sons to the said John Hunt made 
this 1609." 

On a brass fixed to the head of another Altar-tomb, 
opposite the turret at the south-west angle of Sylvester's 
Aisle, is this inscription : — 

" Elizabeth White willingly and peaceably exchanged 
her vile enjoyment here for those rich and 
unspeakable, Eeb. xm, MDCLI. Her twin daughter 
Margaret, the xi day of June before, and her Sister, 
Mary Webb, the last of May following. One of 
the many wholesom words that she left in 
writing was this out of St. Paul. s Now this T say 



38 B1ST0EY OF BTJEFOED. 

brethren that time is short. It remains that 
even they that have wives bee as not having, and 
they that weep as not weeping, and they that 
rejoice as not rejoicing. In the fashion/ &c, &c." 

The modern epitaphs are such as are common to all 
rural churchyards. 




(39) 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MANOR. 

At the time of the Norman Survey the king had at 
Burford a " mansio," i.e., a single house, or a hamlet, 
which Earl Albevic held at the rent of five shillings. 

The following is a translation of an account of Burford 
in Domesday-book* : — 

" To the lands which Earl Aubery held, belongs one 
church, and three mansions ; two of these, paying twenty- 
eight pence, lie to the church of St. Mary ; and the 
third, paying five shillings, lies to Bureford." 

The following is a translation of another account in the 
same Record : — ■ 

" Land of the Bishop of Baieux." * 

" Earl Aubery holds Bureford of the land of the 
Bishop. There are eight hides there. Land to twenty 
ploughs. Now in the demesne four ploughs and three 
bondmen and twenty-two 4 villanes and eight bordars have 
twelve ploughs. There are two mills of twenty-five 
shillings. And twenty-five acres of meadow. Pasture 
one mile in length and in breadth. It was worth sixteen 
pounds, now thirteen pounds/' For explanation of terms 
see Note K. 

I See Note I. * Odo ; Bishop of Bayeux. 



40 HISTORY OF BURFORD. 

Dugdale supposes this EsxlAubery to be the ancestor 
of the Veres, Earls of Oxford. P. 188. 

Thus at this early period Burford was held by Earl 
Aubery, but after the Conquest this town belonged to 
Robert, Earl of Gloucester, natural son of Henry L, who 
dying in A.D. 1147, this manor went to his eldest son 
and heir 

William, Earl of Gloucester. 

This Earl died in A.D. 1173, leaving only three daugh- 
ters, viz. : 

Mabell, married to the Earl of Chereux, in Nor- 
mandy ; 

Amice, married to Richard de Clare, Earl of Hert- 
ford ; and 

Isabell, married to John, son of King Henry II. 

Mabell and Isabell dying without issue the inheritance 
of this great Honour totally devolved to Amice wife of 
Richard de Clare aforesaid, and sole heir to all that 
Earldom, so that her posterity afterwards enjoyed the 
title of Earls of Gloucester. This Earl dying in A.D. 1206, 
was succeeded by his only son and heir 

Gilbert de Clare, the first Earl of Gloucester and 
Hertford jointly. He married Isabel, 3rd daughter and 
eventually coheir of William ^lareschal, the Elder, Earl 
of Pembroke, and dying in A.D. 1229, was succeeded by 
his eldest son and heir 

Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, 
who married twice. His first wife died without issue ; he 
married secondly Maude, daughter of John de Lacey, 



THE HANOR. 41 

Earl of Lincoln; and dying 14 July, 1262, was suc- 
ceeded by his son and heir 

GilbeH de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, 
commonly called the Red, In 13 Edw. I. this Earl having 
been divorced from Alice his wife (daur : of Guy, Earl of 
Angolesme), taking consideration of her noble birth, freely 
granted to her for her support during life, amongst other 
manors, the manor of Burford. 

He married secondly, (in 17 Edw. I.) Joane of Acres, 
daur. of King Edward I., by whom he had one son and 
three daughters; and dying 7 Dec. 1295, was succeeded 
by his son and heir 

GilbeH de Glare, (then five years old) Earl of Glou- 
cester and Hertford. He married Maude, daughter of 
John de Burgh, son of Richard, Earl of Ulster. He 
was slain in the battle of Bannockburn,* 24 June A.D. 
1314, and leaving no issue surviving (for John his son 
died in his lifetime) his three sisters became his heirs ; 
between whom, " after two years' expectance of issue to 
be borne on the body of Maude his wife/'-f- this great 
inheritance was shared. This Earl's widow (Maude) 

* The well-known song — 

" Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," 

is intended to express the address of the gallant Bruce to his army, 
before the battle of Bannockburn which was gained by the Scots, 
notwithstanding the inferiority of their numbers. The English had 
never met with a more terrible defeat than this, for they had made quite 
sure of victory ; and the event of this battle is remembered with 
pride by the Scots to this very day. 

f Let. Itin. Vol. 6. f. 85, and Dugdale p. 217. 

G 



42 HISTORY OF BUKFOKD. 

had for her dowry and assignation, amongst other manors, 
the manor of Caversham, with certain lands in Burford, 
Nether-Orton, and Heyford at the Bridge, together with 
the Hundred of Chadlington, Oxfordshire. 

In 7 Edw. II. (a.d. 1314), Sir Hugh le Despencer, 
Knight, the younger, married Alianore, the eldest of 
the three daughters and heiresses of Gilbert de Clare who 
died in 1295 ; and doing his homage in 10 Edw. II. 
had Livery of her purparty of the Lordships and Lands 
of that Earl. 

In 1 6 Edward II. A.D. 1323, he obtained a Charter for 
a Fair, yearly, at his manor of Burford, for the space of 
seven days preceding the nativity of St. John Baptist ; 
that day, and eight days following. This Fair has been 
discontinued very many years. 

The same year also this Earl procured for himself, 
amongst several grants of manors, a grant of twenty 
pounds yearly rent issuing out of the manor of Burford, 
late John Giffard's, attainted. 

This great man (the King's Chamberlain and chief 
favourite in 14 Edw. II.) becoming very odious to the 
Queen, Prince, and People ; and favouring the King of 
Scotland, was the occasion of the English being defeated 
at Bannockburn ; (Froissart. lib. 1 and 2. f. 2 a.) and that 
by his traitorous council and extortion, the king had dis- 
honoured his realm by ordering his greatest Lord to be 
beheaded, neither would his Majesty see the Queen his 
wife, nor Edward his eldest son, this Earl was according 
to sentence executed as a traitor on a gallows fifty feet 
high, on St. Andrew's Eve, A.D. 1326. 



THE MANOE. 43 

Upon his execution this distich was then made : — 

" Funis cum lignis, a te miser ensis et ignis, 
Hugo securis, equus, abstulit omne decus." 

" The rope, because he was drawn with it ; 
The wood, because he was hanged thereon ; 
The sword, because he was beheaded therewith ; 
The hre, because his bowels were burnt ; 
The axe, because he was quartered therewith ; and 
The horse, because he drew him/' 

Upon the death of this Hugh's widow (Alianore) in 
A.D. 1337, his eldest son and heir 

Hugh Despencer, succeeded ; and doing his homage, 
had Livery of the lands of her inheritance. 

He married Elizabeth, the widow of Giles de Brad- 
dlesmere, and daughter of William de Montacute Earl 
of Salisbury. 

In 17 Edw. III. he was then styled Lord of Glamorgan. 

This Lord died 8 Feb. 23 Edw. III. seized, amongst other 
manors, of the manor of Caver sham, Shipton, Bur ford, 
and the Hundred of Chadlington, Oxfordshire ; and left 

Edward Despencer, son of his brother Edward, his 
next heir, then twelve years of age, and afterwards made 
a Knight, and a Baron. This Lord died in 49 Edw. III. 
(a great Baron and a good Knight, saith Froissart) seized, 
amongst other manors, of the manor of Burford, Shipton, 
Caversham, and the Hundred of Chadlington, Oxford- 
shire ; leaving by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Bar- 
tholomew de Burghersh, 

Thomas Despencer, his son and heir, then two years 



44 HISTORY OF BTJEEORD. 

old ; afterwards called Thomas Lord Despeneer of Gla- 
morgan and Worganok. In 21 Kich. II. this Thomas 
(amongst others, then advanced to great titles of Honour) 
was created Earl of Gloucester, in consequence of his 
descent from Gilbert de Clare, sometime Earl of Glou- 
cester. 

In 22 Rich. II. this Earl attended the King into Ire- 
land, but the next year following, though he was one of 
the chief of those Peers who formally acted in the depo- 
sition of that unfortunate Prince, King Richard the 
Second, yet was he soon after degraded from the title of 
Earl of Gloucester, by that Parliament held in the first 
year of King Henry the Fourth (which was the very next 
ensuing year) as all those others were, who were the pro- 
secutors of that worthy person Thomas of Woodstock* 
Duke of Gloucester, after he had been so barbarously 
murdered at Calais; and sentenced to lose all # such 
Castles, Lordships, and Lands, as he had of those whom 
he accused, upon the day that the Duke of Gloucester 
was arrested, or afterwards. And, that all his other 
Castles, Manors, and Lands, which he then, or since, held 
of the King, should be at the King's mercy : as also, that 
if ever he should go about to give assistance to the de- 
posed King, to be then prosecuted as a Traitor. Of what 
he was afterwards guilty, doth not directly appear ; but 
it seems to have been an adherence with the Earls of 
Kent, Salisbury, and Huntingdon, who designed the sur- 
prisal of King Henry the Fourth at Windsor ;. for before 

* He was the King's Uncle, and was smothered with a feather-bed. 

Froissart. f. 294. a. n. 40. 



THE HAXOK. 45 

the end of the first year of that King's reign he, by the 
vote of the Commons being condemned to die, was carried 
into the market-place, Bristol, and there beheaded by the 
rabble in 1 Henry IV. A.D. 1399. All this Lord's Castles, 
Lordships, Lands, &c, within the territories of Glamorgan 
and Worganok now came to the Crown, but Constance, 
his widow, (daughter of Edmund of Langley, Duke of 
York) obtained a Grant from the King for life, of the 
manors of Caversham, Burford, and Shipton, Oxfordshire ; 
with several others in other counties ; and enjoyed by 
her until her death in 4 Henry V. A.D. 1417. 

By this Constance he left issue one son 

Richard, who married but died in A.D. 1414 without 
issue ; and two daughters. Of these daughters, Eliza- 
beth died in her childhood ; but Isabel was first mar- 
ried to 

Richard Reauchamp, Lord Bergavenny, and after- 
wards Earl of Worcester. Which Richard, doing his 
fealty in 2 Hen. V. had Livery of all those Lordships and 
Lands, as upon the death of her brother descended to 
her ; and in 4 Hen. V. upon the death of Constance, her 
mother, had the like Livery of what she held in Dower. 

But this Richard, Earl of Worcester, departing this 
life before her, she afterwards, by a special dispensation 
from the Pope, married 

Richard Beanchamp* Earl of Warwick. This Earl 

* "This Isabel, his second wife, being the widow of Richard 
Beanchamp, Earl of Worcester, his Uncle's son, he had a special 
Dispensation from the Pope to marry her/ 5 Dugdale. p. 247. 



46 HISTORY OP JJUltFOED. 

departed this life 17 Hen. VI. A.D. 1439, leaving issue by 
her, Henry smd Anne. 

Henry Beauchamp, only son and heir, Earl of War- 
wick, was born inA.D. 1424, 3 Hen. VI., and was created 
Duke of Warwick in 22 Hen. VI. by that King. 

He married Cecily, daughter of Richard Nevill, Earl 
of Salisbury ; and dying in A.D. 1445, left issue one only 
daughter Anne, who was born in A.D. 1439, and died 
3 Jan. 1449. 

Whereupon Anne, her Aunt, born in A.D. 1429, sister 
of the whole blood of the late Duke of Warwick, became 
heir to this earldom, being at that time (a.d. 1449) 
the wife of Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, eldest son 
of Richard Nevill, Earl of Salisbury, having been 
wedded to him the same year that Henry her brother 
married Cecily his sister. This Earl after his father's 
death was Earl of Salisbury. 

Which Richard, by reason of that marriage, and in 
respect of his special services about the King's person ; 
and likewise in the wars of Scotland (for so doth the 
Patent import) had, upon the three and twentieth of July 
next, following the death of the before-mentioned Anne, 
his wife's niece, the Dignity and Title of Earl of Warwick, 
confirmed (Pat. 27 Hen. VI. p. ]. m. 1.) and declared to 
him and his said wife, and to her heirs, with all pre- 
eminences, that any of their Ancestors, before the creation 
of Henry, Duke of Warwick, used. This is that Richard 
Nevill who was commonly called the Stout Earl of 
Warwick, having been an eminent actor in those tragic 
broils between the Houses of Lancaster and York, as our 
Historians do fully manifest. 



THE MANOR. 47 

This Earl lost his life on Easter-day, A.D. 1471 (11 
Edw. IV.) at Barner-Field battle, leaving his Countess in 
possession of his vast inheritance, all of which was taken 
from her by authority of Parliament,* and settled upon 
Isabel and Anne, her two daughters and heirs (the first 
of them wife of George, Duke of Clarence ; and the other 
wife of Richard, Duke of Gloucester ;) as if she herself 
had been naturally dead ; which was withheld from her 
till 3 Hen. VII. A.D. 1488, that the King (having him- 
self a mind thereto, her daughters being both dead) by a 
new Act of Parliament,*)- annulled the former, and re- 
stored unto her the possession of the premises, with the 
power to alienate the same, or any part thereof : but not 
with intention that she should enjoy it, as it seems ; for 
it appears, that the same year, by a special Feoffment, £ 
,bearing date 13 Dec, and a Fine thereupon, she conveyed 
it wholly to the King, entailing it upon the issue-male of 
his body, with- remainder to herself and her heirs. 

Amongst the numerous Lordships contained in that 
Grant, are the manors of Burford, Shipton, Spelsbury, 
Chadlington, and Langley, in Oxfordshire. This Coun- 
tess was living in 5 Hen. VII. as appears (Pat. 5. Hen. 
VII. m. 24.) by an assignation from the King of the 
manor of Sutton, ■ Warwickshire, at that time, for her 
maintenance ; but how long after the author knows not, 
for of her death there is no record that he can find. 

* Rot. Pari. 14 Edw. IV. n. 20. 
t Rot. Pari. 3 Hen. VII. 



48 HISTOEY OF BT7EFOED. 

Of these two daughters, 

Isabel was married 11 July, 1469, (9Edw. IV.) to 

George, Duke of Clarence, brother of King Ed- 
ward IV. 

Anne was first married to Edward, Prince of Wales, 
(son of King Henry VI., stabbed at the battle of Tewkes- 
bury, in cold blood, by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as 
our Historians affirm) and afterwards to Richard, Duke 
of Gloucester ; who, by reason thereof, possessed himself 
of all Warwick's Lands, imprisoning her mother as long 
as she lived ; and poisoning her, as it was thought, to 
make way for his marriage with his brother's (King 
Edw. IV.) eldest daughter. 

From this Richard Nevill the Manor of Burford* 
passed through the House of Clarence to the Crown. 

King Henry VII. granted the Stewardship of this, 
Manor to * 

Sir William Norris, Knight ; in consideration of his 
counsel, he being a Lawyer of great esteem in his time. 

King Henry VIII. granted it to 

Thomas Bridges, afterwards of Keynsham Abbey, 
Somersetshire ; who by his Will was a benefactor to the 
Church here. Skelton says — 

" In 35 Henry VIII. it was granted by that king to 

* List of Works consulted in the compilation of the above Com- 
pendium of the Lords of this Manor. 
Monast. Anglic. Rot. John. Rous. 

Leland's Itinerary. Vol. 6. Tho. Waif. 

Froissart's Chronicles, lib. I. and II. Hall's Chron. 
Dugdale's Baronage. Kennett's Paroch. Antiq. 



THE ilAXOE. 49 

Edmund Harrnan." He furthur says — 

"After this, the Estate was divided between 

Ann, Duchess of Somerset, and Edward Lee. It went 
subsequently to the Crown, for on 31st of August, 41st of 
Elizabeth, it was sold by that Queen io 

Sir John FoHescue, Knt. ; Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer, and Privy Counsellor to Queen Elizabeth and 
King James I. He in the reign of Kiug James I. sold 
it to 

Sir Laivrence Tanfield, Knt. ; Baron of the Court of 
Exchequer. He left it to his grandson 

Lord Falkland, by whom it was sold in the reign of 
Charles I. to the 

Speaker Lenthall" SJcelton's Oxfordshire. 

In Wood's Athence Oxonienses it is mentioned that, 
"About the year 1634 Will. Lenthall did, for the sum 
of dPTjOOO or thereabouts, purchase of Lucius Viscount 
Falkland the Priory house and land belonging there- 
unto/' and dying here in 1662 was succeeded in this 
estate by his only son 

Sir John Lenthall, Knt. ; whom Wood calls " the 
grand Braggadocio and Lyer of the age he lived in/' 
Vol. II. pp. 204, 206. Edit, of 1 692. 

From him it passed through many generations to his 
descendant 

William John Lenthall, Esq. ; who sold it in the 
year 1827-9 to 

Charles Greenaway, Esq , of Barrington Crove, Little 
Barrington, Gloucestershire, an adjoining estate, who by 
right of this property became Lord of the Manor. This 



50 HISTORY OF BURFOrj). 

gentleman died 25 JS r ov. 1859, S.P. and was buried in 
his late father's vault in Little Barrington church. 

Miss Youde, his Niece, now became Heir to the 
Priory-estate, but owing to her late father's extravagance 
this property was much involved, and shortly after Mr. 
Oreenaway's death it was placed in Chancery where it 
is still pending. 




(51) 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE PRIORY. 

This Priory was a religious-house belonging to the Abbey 
of Keynsham, Somersetshire. 

The only mention which the Author finds of it in 
Dugdale's JUonasticon is, its valuation temp. Hen. VIII. 
£13 „ 6 „ 6. 

Leland says, " There was a place in Burford caullyd 
the Priorie. Horman the Kyng's barber hath now the 
lands of it." Itin. Vol. VII. 63 b. 

Tanner says, " This was a small Priory, or hospital 
here, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist. It was 
valued at <£13 „ 6 „ 6 per annum; and granted 35 
Hen. VIII. to Edmund Herman." * 

Xotitia Monastica. 428. 

* Harman is evidently the correct name, (see Note G. in Appendix) 
though, spelt Horman and Herman by Authors quoted above. 
Tradition says, to Hercules Harman because over the entrance are 
two human figures of stone which are allegorical of the name : — the 
one figure holding a club is Hercules, and the other covered with hair 
holding the trunk of a tree and having a hare between his feet repre- 
sents Harman, or hair or hareman, the two standing for Hercules 
Harman. 

The Author prefers old Verstegan's derivation : — he observes, 
" Harman should rightly bee Hart-man, to wit, a man of harte or 
courage" 

It also signifies a Soldier or Constable, in both which vocations 
heart or courage is necessary. 



52 HISTOEY OF BUKFORD. 

"A meadow in Sherborne* did belong to the Priory 
of St. John the Evangelist in Burford, which Priory was 
valued at the Dissolution at ^13 „ 6 „ 6. This meadow 
was granted to Edmond Herman 35 H. 8 " 

Atkins' Gloucestershire, p. 645. 

" The Advowson of the Rectory of Widford,f and a 
toft of lands which lately belonged to the Priory of St. 
John the Evangelist in Burford, were granted to Ed- 
mond Herman 37 H. 8." 

Atkins' Gloucestershire, p. 819. 

No part of this religious establishment remaining at 
the Dissolution, Mr. Harman was reported to have built 
a private residence, termed the Priory, on the site of it. 

This estate afterwards belonged to 

Sir Lawrence To.nfteld, Knt. ; one of the Judges of the 
King's Bench, who undoubtedly built, (temp. James I.) 
out of the old building, the handsome mansion occupied 
by Mr. Lenthall in the year 1790. 

About the year 1808 the whole of the North wing and 
full half of the Eastern front were pulled down, thus de- 

* Sherborne is in Gloucestershire ; 4 miles west from Burford. 
f Widford is in Gloucestershire ; ,1 mile east from Burford. This 
Manor formerly belonged to the Lords Lovell, Francis Lord Lovell, 
was in great favour with King Richard the Third, and was partaker 
with him in his wicked practices, and was therefore advanced to be 
Lord Chamberlain, on whom this distich was made : — 
" The Bat, the Cat, and Lovell that Dog, 
Bule all England under the Hog:. 55 



THE PEIOSY. 53 

stroying the Elizabethan character as well as the beauty 
and grandeur of this fine and interesting house. Fresh 
rooms were then added, which were considered more 
suited to the needs of an improved elegance of manners. 

William John Lenthall, Esq., resided here in the year 
1827, but he alienated the estate in 1829, and sold the 
fine collection of family Pictures* at Christie's, London, 
a few years later. ' 

This once handsome residence is now in ruins and fast 
tumbling to the ground. 

It is enclosed from the town by a high wall, and the 
large entrance-gates have been taken away and the space 
filled up with stones. 

The lover of old houses must formerly have been 
pleased with the style of the building, which consisted of 
two wings, and a middle projection in which is the 
entrance-door,™ with scalloped gables which distinguished 
the Architecture of the seventeenth century. 

The inside consisted of a large hall, on the sides of 
which were Dining and Drawing rooms, and on the left 
a heavy Elizabethan staircase leading to a large Draw- 
ing-room, an abundance of Bedrooms, and other requisite 
offices. 

It is matter of regret that this venerable residence, 
erected on the site of an ancient religious institution, has 
been allowed to fall into deplorable and premature decay. 

/ See Note L. m See Note M. 



54 HISTORY OF BUftFOHD. 



The Chapel. 



The Chapel adjoining, built by the Speaker Lenthall, 
is likewise fast tumbling down. 

In the year 1799 it was disused, but the Pulpit, Pews, 
&c, were there ; and the ceiling was full of stucco-work, 
in one compartment of which was, the Adoration of the 
Shepherds, with Gloria patri in excelsis, &c. ; in another 
compartment, Abraham offering up Isaac : all of which 
are gone. On each side of the doorway still stands a 
small angel on a pedestal. 

Under one is written, Under the other, 

Exue calceos tuos Nam terra est sancta. 

Servabimur Quasi per ignem. 

Exod.HL 5. 1 Cor. III. 15. 

Over the door seems to be a representation in Bass- 
relief of a bush in flames. I say, seems, because unless 
explained by the above inscriptions it would not be 
readily acknowledged as such. 

This Chapel was approached by the family (previous 
to the year 1799) by a communication from the large 
Drawing-room upstairs over the leads of the passage 
which connected it with the South wing, now in ruins 
and almost impassible. 

The Gardens. 

Here are Gardens,* but no ornamental grounds of 

* Mr. John Prior was murdered and found hid in the Summer- 
house here, and buried in the Chancel of Burford Church, April 6, 
1697. See Register-book of this date. 



THE PRIORY. 



55 



any extent ; the back front is shut in by some trees at 
the bottom of the garden, beyond which is the open hilly 
country. 

On the north side of the house there is a pleasing 
slope (on which are two magnificent trees) to the river, 
and there is a view across a flat to a green rising hill, 
called Westhall, on the top of which an old and deserted 
Manor-hoivse forms a pretty object. 




(56) 



CHAPTER V. 

EMINENT MEN. 

William Lenthall, second son of William Lenthall, 
of Lachford, Oxfordshire, by Frances his wife, daughter 
of Sir Thomas Southwell, of St Faith's, Norfolk, was 
born at Henley-upon-Thames, Oxfordshire, in June, 
1591, descended from William Lenthall or Leynthall, 
of Lenthall, Herefordshire. 

He became a Commoner of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford, 
in the year 1606, but left at the end of 3 years without 
a Degree and went to Lincolns Lnn where he became 
a Counsellor of note, and in 13 Charles I. Lent-reader of 
the said Inn. In the latter end of the year 1639 he was 
elected Burgess for the Corporation of Woodstock, Ox- 
fordshire, and again in Oct. 1640, for the same place to 
serve in that unhappy Convention called the Long Parlia- 
ment, begun 3 Nov. the same year : at which time being- 
elected Speaker of the House of Commons, (worth i?2,000 
per an.) he kept that office, by siding with the the lead- 
ing party, till its dissolution, without any adherence to 
the king. He became Master of the Rolls 8 Nov. 1643, 
(worth J?3,000 per an.) one of the Commissioners of the 
Great Seal in 1646, (worth i?l,500 per an.) Chamberlain 
of Chester in 1647, a place of profit and honour, about 




*W ILLIAM XjEISTTIi^-IjIL., 

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 



This Engraving was presented by W. R. Cooke, Esq. 



EMINENT MEN. O / 

the same time he became Chancellor of the Dutchy of 
Lancaster, (worth i?l,000 per an.) and anything else 
that he desired. Besides these honourable places, he had 
<£*6,000 at one time given to him by the Parliament, and 
at another, " the Rectory and Demesne of Burford, in 
Oxfordshire, with a stately house there, lately belonging 
to Lucius Viscount Falkland" as the author of the 
Mystery of the good old cause reports, (London. 1660. 
p. 17.) but falsely Wood supposes, "for about the year 
1634 the said Will. Lenthall did, for the sum of i?7,000 
or thereabouts, purchase of the said Lucius the Priory- 
house (the stately house before mentioned) and land 
belonging thereunto/' Athence. Oxonienses. p. 204. 

In 1648 when there was a debate in the Parliament 
House whether the treaty should be with the king in the 
Isle of Wight, upon the propositions of Hampton Court, 
there were for it 57 yeas, and against it 57 noes; where- 
upon he, as Speaker, turned the scales to yeas. 

In 1653, Oliver deprived him of this office, but elected 
him Speaker again in 1654 • he was also of the Rump 
Parliament in 1659. 

In 1660 he was exiled, but afterwards obtained from 
the king a general pardon, and retiring to his house at 
Burford before mentioned, endeavoured to make amends 
for the past by shewing great love to Scholars and the 
neighbouring Clergy till the time of his death. 

He died here 3 Sept. 1662, and was buried* two days 

* "William Lenthall, Esq., Lord of the Burrough of Burford buried 
tlie fift day of September 16G2." See Register-book of this date. 

Mr. Lenthall did not die on 1 Sept. as stated by Burke in his 
"Landed Gentry" of 1858. p. 689. 



58 HISTORY OF BURFORD. 

after without pomp in Pynnock's Aisle of Burford 
Church. He forbad any excessive costs at his funeral, or 
any monument, or any other epitaph than Vermis sum ; 
so that there is no memorial of him existing in this place. 

What remains more to be remembered of him is his 
own confession on his death-bed to 

Dr. Ralph BrideoaJc then Eector of Witney, near 
Burford : who administering to him ghostly counsel, and 
desiring to know how he had kept and observed the fifth 
commandment, reminding him that disobedience, rebel- 
lion, and schism w r ere the great sins against it, made this 
confession : — 

" Yes, there is my trouble, my disobedience not against 
my natural parents only, but against the Pater patrice, 
our deceased Sovereign. I confess with Saul, I held 
their clothes whilst they murdered him, but herein I was 
not so criminal as Saul was, for God thou knowest, I 
never consented to his death, I ever prayed and endea- 
voured what I could against it, but I did too-much, 
Almighty God forgive me/' &c. 

Then the Doctor urged him to confess, if he knew any 
of those villains that plotted and contrived that horrid 
murder, which were not then detected; to which he 
answered, " I am a stranger to that business, my soul 
never entered into that secret ; but what concerns myself 
I will confess freely. These are especially laid to my 
charge, wherein indeed I am too guilty ; as first, that I 
went from the Parliament to the Army. 2, That I pro- 
posed the bloody question for trying the king. And 3, 
That I sat in Parliament after the king's death/' 



EMINENT MEN. 59 

" To the first, I may give this answer, that Cromwell 
and his agents deceived a wiser man than myself, I mean 
that excellent king, and then might well deceive me also, 
and so they did. I knew the Presbyterians would never 
restore the king to his just rights, these men (the Inde- 
pendents) swore they would. For the second, no excuse 
can be made, but I have the king's pardon, and I hope 
Almighty God will shew me his mercy also : yet even 
then, when I put the question, I hoped the very putting 
the question would have cleared him, because I believed 
four for one were against it, but they deceived me also. 
To the third, I make this candid confession, that it wa,s 
my own baseness and cowardice and unworthy fear to 
submit myself to the mercy of those men that murdered 
the king, that hurried me on against my own conscience 
to act with them. Yet then, I thought also, I might do 
some good, and hinder some ill. Something I did for the 
Church and Universities, something for the king when I 
broke the oath* of abjuration. Something also for 
his return ; but the ill I did, overweighed the little good 
I would have done. God forgive me for this also/' &c. 

* It is said that one Mrs. Catherine Johnson, a pretender to 
Prophecy did some time before, tell Will. Lenthall that the oath of 
abjuration against the Royal Family should be endeavoured to pass in 
Parliament : which if he would deny, he should afterwards be forgiven 
for what he had done against the King. So that upon her warning, 
Ti£ (upon the proposal of that oath) absented himself from the Rouse 
for about ten days, under pretence of the Gout. See more in a book 
called, The Mystery and Method of his Majesties happy Restaur ation, &c, 
by Joh. Price, d.d. — London. 1680, Oct. p. 40. 



60 HISTOEY OF BUEFOED. 

He also confessed that, " tie had no hand in, or gave any 
consent to, the murdering and ruining the Fathers of 
the Church ; and also that, he died a dutiful son of the 
Church of England, as it was established befwe the 
Rebellion broke out" &c. 

After which confession, which was done like a very 
sincere penitent, he received the Absolution of the Church 
with much content and satisfaction. 

See fuller account of Speaker Lent hall in 
Wood's Athen. Oxon. pp. 203—206. 



Copy of a letter from Oliver Cromwell to the Speaker 
ZenthalL giving an account of the battle of Naseby. 

" To the Honourable W. LenthalL, Speaker to the Commons House 
of Parliament." 

"Sir, 

Being commanded by you to this Service, I think 
myself bound to acquaint you with the good hand of God 
towards you and us : we marched yesterday after the 
king, who went before us from Daventry to Haversbrowe, 
and quartered about six miles from him ; — he drew out 
to meet us — both armies engaged. — We, after three hours 
fight— very doubtful, — at last routed his army — killed 
and took about 5000 — very many officers — but of what 
quality, we yet know not. — We took also about 200 
carag. all he had — and all his guns being twelve in num- 
ber — whereof two were demi-culverins and I think the 
rest fasces — we pursued the enemy from three miles short 
of Haversbrowe toninebeyond — everto sight of Leicester/' 



EMINENT MEN. 61 

" whither the king fled.— -Sir — this is none other but the 
hand of God ; — and to him alone belongs the glory — 
wherein none are to share with him. — The general served 
you with all faithfulness and honour — and the best re- 
commendation I can give of him is ; that I dare say he 
attributes all to God and would rather perish than to 
assume himself, which is an honest and thriving way — 
yet as much for bravery must be given to him in this 
action as to a man. — Honest men served you faithfully 
in this action. — Sir, they are trusty — I beseech you in 
the name of God, not to discourage them. — I wish this 
action may beget thankfulness and humility in all that 
are concerned in it. — He that ventures his life for the 
good of his country — I wish he trusts God for the liberty 
of his conscience and you for the liberty he fights for. — ■ 
In this he rests who is your most humble Servant 

0. Ckomwell." 
" Haversbrowe, June 14, 1645/' 

See Historical Sketches of King Charles I., 
by W.D.Eellowes. pp. 228, 229. Pub: 1828. 



Copy of General Cromwell's account of the Battle of 
Dunbar, in a letter to Zenthall, the Speaker. 

" Sir, 

I hope it is not ill taken that I make no more fre- 
quent addresses to the Parliament. Things that are of 
trouble in point of provision for your army, and of ordi- 
nary direction, I have, as I could, often presented to the 
Council of State, together with such occurrences as have" 



62 HISTORY OF BURFORD. 

"happened, who I am sure, as they have not been wanting 
in their extraordinary care and provision for us, so neither 
what they judge fit and necessary to represent the same 
to you ; and this I thought to be a sufficient discharge of 
my duty on that behalf. 

It has now pleased God to bestow a mercy, upon you, 
worthy of your knowledge, and of the utmost praise and 
thanks of all that love and fear his name ; yea, the mercy 
is far above all praise, which, that you may the better 
perceive, I shall take the boldness to tender unto you the 
same circumstances accompanying the great business, 
which will manifest the greatness and seasonableness of 
this mercy. We having tried what we could to engage 
the enemy three or four miles west of Edinburgh, that 
proving ineffectual, and our victuall failing, we marched 
towards our shippes, for a recruit of our want ; the enemy 
did not at all trouble us in our rere, but marched the 
direct way towards Edinburgh, and partly in the night 
and morning slipps thro' his whole army and quarters 
himself in a posture, easy to interpose between us and 
our victuall, but the Lord made him lose the opportunity, 
and the morning proving exceeding wett and dark, we 
recovered by that time it was light into a ground where 
they could not hinder us from our victuall, which was a 
high act of the Lord's providence to us. We being come 
into the saide ground, the enemy marched into the ground 
we were last upon, having no mind either to strive to get 
between us and our victuall, or to fight, being, indeed, upon 
this lock, hoping that the sickness of our army would 
render their work more easy by the gaining of time/' 



EMINENT MEJST. 63 

" Whereupon we marched to Musselburgh to victual and 
to ship away our sick men, where we sent abord neere 
500 sick and wounded soldiers ; and upon serious con- 
sideration, finding our weakness so to increase, and the 
enemy living upon his advantages, at a general council, 
it was thought fitte to march to Dunbar, and there to for- 
tify the towne, which we thought, if any thinge, would 
provoke them to engage ; as also that the having a garis- 
son there would furnish us with accommodation for our 
sick men, and would be a place for a good magazeene 
(which we exceedingly wanted) being put to depend upon 
the uncertainty of weather for landing provisions, which 
many times cannot be done, tho' the being of the whole 
army lay upon it, all the coast from Leith to Berwick, not 
having one good harbour ; as also, to lye more conve- 
niently to receive our recruits of horse and foot from 
Berwick. Having these considerations, upon Saturday, 
the 30th of August, we marched from Musselburgh to 
Heddington where by the time we had got the van brigade 
of our horse and foot and traine into theire quarters, the 
enemy was marched with that exceeding expedition, that 
they fell upon the rere forlorn of our horse and put it 
into some disorder, and indeed had like to have engaged 
our rere brigade of horse with their whole army, had not 
the Lord by his good providence put a cloude over the 
moone, thereby giving us opportunity to draw off these 
horse to the rest of the army, which accordingly was done 
without any losse, save of three or four of our foremen- 
tioned forlorn, wherein the enemy (as we believe) re- 
ceived more losse. The army being put into a reasonable" 



64 HISTORY OF BTJRFOKD. 

"secure posture, towards midnight the enemy attempted 
our quarter on the west end of Heddington, but (through 
the goodness of God) we repulsed them. The next 
morning we drew into an open field on the south side of 
Heddington, we not judging it safe for us to draw to the 
enemy upon his own ground, he being already pre- 
possessed thereof, but rather drew back to give him way 
to come to us, if he had so thought fitte ; and having 
waited about the space of four or five hours, to see if he 
would come to us and not finding any inclination in the 
enemy so to doe, we resolved to goe, according to our first 
entendment to Dunbar. 

By that time we had marched three or four miles, we 
saw some bodies of the enemy's horse draw out of their 
quarters ; and by that time our carriages had gotten near 
Dunbar, theire whole army was upon theire marche after 
us ; and indeed our drawing back in this manner with 
the addition of three new regiments added to them, did 
much heighten their confidence, if not presumption and 
arrogance. The enemy, that night, we perceived gather 
towards the hills, labouring to make a perfect interposi- 
tion between us and Berwick ; and having in this posture, 
a great advantage, through their better knowledge of the 
country, which he effected by sending a considerable 
partie to the straight Pass at Coppeth, where ten men to 
hinder are better than forty to make their way, and truly 
this was an exegent to us wherewith the enemy reproached 
us with that condition, the Parliament's army was in 
when it made its hard conditions with the king in Corn- 
wall/' 



EMINENT MEN. 65 

"By some reports that have come to us, they had dis- 
posed of us and of their business in sufficient revenge and 
wrath towards our persons ; and had swallowed up the 
poor interest of England ; believing that their armie and 
their king would have marched to London without any 
interruption, it being told us, we know not how truly, 
by a prisoner we took the night before the fight, that 
their king was very suddenly to come amongst them with 
those English they allowed to be about him, but in what 
they were thus lifted up, the Lord was above them. The 
enemy lying in the posture above mentioned, having these 
advantages, we lay very near him, being sensible of our 
disadvantage, having some weakness of flesh, but yet con- 
solation and support on the Lord himself to our poor 
weak faith, wherein, I believe, not a few amongst us 
shared, that because of their numbers, because of their 
advantage, because of their confidence, because of our 
weaknesse, because of our straight we were in the mount 
the Lord would be sure, and that he would find a way for 
us, whereby we might escape. And indeed we had our 
consolation and our hopes. Upon Monday evening, the 
enemy whose numbers were very great, as we learn about 
6000 horse and 16000 foote, at least, ours drawn down, 
as to sound men, about 7500 foote and 3500 horse. The 
enemy drew down to their right-winge about two thirds 
of their left-winge of horse, to their right-winge, shogging 
also their foote and traine much to the right, causing 
their winge of horse to edge down towards the sea. We 
could not well imagine but that the enemy intended to 
attempt upon us, or to place themselves in a more exact" 



66 HISTORY OF BT7RFORD. 

"condition of interposition. The Major generall and my- 
self coming to the Earl of Roxborough's house, and ob- 
serving his posture, I told him I thought it did give us 
an opportunity to advantage, to attempt upon the enemy ; 
to which he immediately replied, that he had thought 
to have said the same thing to me ; so that it pleased 
the Lorde to sett this apprehension upon both our 
hearts at the same instant. We called for Colonell 
Monke and shewed him the thing, and coming to our 
quarters at night, and demonstrating our apprehensions 
to some of the Colonells, they also cheerfully concurred. 
We resolved therefore to put our business into this posture, 
and that sixe regiments of horse and three regiments and 
a halfe of foote should marche in the van, and that the 
Major generall, the Lieutenant generall of the horse, and 
the Commissary generall and Colonell Monke, to com- 
mand the brigade of foote, should lead on the business, 
and that Colonell Pride's brigade, Colonell Overton's 
brigade, and the remaining two regiments of horse, should 
bring up the cannon and rere, the time of falling on to 
be by breake of day, but by some delay it proved not to 
be till five a clock in the morninge. The enemy's worde 
was THE COVENANT, which they had used for diverse 
days, ours THE LORD OF HOSTS. The Major 
generall, Lieutenant generall Whalley and Lieutenant 
generall Twisleton, gave the onset, the enemy being in 
very good position to receive them, having the advantage 
of their cannon and foote, against our horse, and before 
our foote could come up, the enemy made a gallant re- 
sistance. And there was a very hott dispute at sword's" 



EMINENT MEN. 67 

"point between our horse and theirs. Our first foote, after 
they had discharged their first duty, being overpowered 
with the enemy, received some repulse, which they soon 
recovered ; but my own regiment, under the command 
of Lieutenant-Colonell Goff, and my Major White, did 
come seasonably in, and at push of pike did repel the 
stoutest regiment the enemy had there, meerly with the 
courage which the Lorde was pleased to give, which 
proved a great amazement to the residue of their foote, 
this being the first action between the foote : the horse 
in the mean time did, with a great deal of courage and 
spirit, beat backe all opposition, charging through the 
bodies of the enemies horse and their foote, which were 
after the first repulse given by the Lord of Hosts, as 
stubble to their swordes. Indeed I believe I may speak 
it without partiality, both your chief Commanders and 
others in their several places, and soldiers also, acted with 
as much courage as ever had been seen in any action 
since this war ; I know they look not to be named, and 
therefore I forbare particulars. The best of the enemies 
horse and foote being broken through and through, in 
less than an hower's dispute their whole army being put 
into confusion, it became a totall route, and our men 
having the chase and execution of them near eight miles. 
We believe that upon the place and nere about it were 
3000 slaine ; prisoners taken of their officers you have 
this inclosed list ; of private soldiers nere 10,000, the 
whole baggage and trayne taken, in which was good store 
of match, powder and bullet, all their artillerie, great and 
small, thirty gunns. We are confident they have left" 



68 HISTOKY OF BUEFOKD. 

" behind them no less than 15,000 arms. I have already 
brought into me nere 200 collours, which I herewith 
sende you. What officers of quality of theirs are killed 
we yet cannot learne, but surely diverse are, and many 
men of quality are mortally wounded, as Colonell Lums- 
dell, the Lord Libberton, and others ; and that which is 
no small addition, I believe we have not lost 20 men, not 
one commissioned officer slaine, as I heare of, save one 
cornet and Major "Rooksby, since dead of his wounds, and 
not many mortally wounded ; Colonell Whalley only cut 
in the handwrist and his horse twice shot and killed un- 
der him ; but he well recovered another horse and went 
on in his chase Thus you have the prospect of one of 
the most signal mercies God has done for England and 
his people this war. And now may it please you to give 
me the leave of a few words. It is easy to say the Lord 
hath done this. It would do you good to see our poor 
foote go up and down making their boast of God. But, 
Sir, it is in your handes, and by these eminent mercies, 
God puts into your handes to give glory to him, to im- 
prove .your power and his blessing to his praise. We 
that serve you beg of you not to owne us but God alone. 
We pray you owne his people more and more, for they 
are his chariots and horsemen of Israel. Disowne your- 
selves, but owne your authority, and improve it to curb 
the proud and insolent, such as would disturbe the tran- 
quillity of England, through under what specious pre- 
tences soever : relieve the oppressed, hear the groanes of 
poor prisoners in England : be pleased to reforme the 
abuses of all professions, and if there be any one that" 



EMINENT MEN. 69 

"makes many poore, to make a few riche, that suits not 
a commonwealth. If he that strengthens your servants 
to fight, pleases to give you hearts to sett upon those 
things in order to his glory and the glory of your com- 
monwealth besides the benefit that England shall feele 
thereby, you shall shine forth to other nations, who shall 
emulate the glory of such a pattern and through the 
power of God turn into the like. These are our desires, 
and that you may have liberty and opportunity to do 
these things and not be hindered, we have bene and 
shall, (by God's assistance) willing to venture our lives, 
and not desire you should be precipitated by importunity 
from your care of safetie and preservation ; but that the 
doing these good things may have their place amongst 
those which concern well being, and so be wrought in 
their time and order. Since we came in Scotland, it has 
been our desire and longing to avoide blood in this busi- 
ness, by reason God hath a people here fearing his name, 
though deceived ; and to that end we have offered much 
love unto suche in the bo wells of Christe ; and concern- 
ing the truth of our hearts therein have we appealed unto 
the Lord. The ministers of Scotland have hindered the 
passage of these things to the hearts of those to whom 
we intended them, and now we heare that not only the 
deceived people but some of the ministers are also fallen 
in the battle. This is the great hand of the Lord and 
worthy of the consideration of all those who take into 
their hands the instruments of a foolish Shepherd — to 
witt, medling with worldly policies and mixtures of 
earthly power, to set up that which they call the king-" 



70 HISTORY OP BUEFOED. 

" dom of Christ, which is neither it, nor if it were it, 
would such means be found effectual to that end ; and 
neglect or trust not to the Word of God, the sword of 
the Spirit which is alone powerful and able for the setting 
up of that kingdome, and when trusted to, will be found 
effectually able to that end and will also do it. This is 
humbly offered for their sakes, who having lately much 
turned aside, that they might returne againe to preache 
Jesus Christ according to the simplicity of the Gospell, 
and then no doubt they will discerne and find your pro- 
tection and incouragement. Beseeching you to pardon 
this length, I humbly take leave, and rest 

Your humble Servant, 

O. Ckomwell." 
Dunbarr, September 24th, 1650. 

For the honourable William Lenthall, Esq., Speaker 
of the Parliament of England. 

W. D. Fellowes. pp. 230—336. 

Note. — The above two letters are curious specimens of Cromwell's 
epistolary style, and are assuredly characteristic of him whom 
Hampden said to Lord Bigby : — That sloven will be the greatest man in 



Soon after the execrable execution of King Charles Cromwell ob- 
tained the command of the Army, being saluted General, (the Par- 
liament's General.) 



EMINENT MEN. 71 

Butler in his Hudibras, Part III. Canto II. lines 
907 — 910, thus writes of Speaker Lenthall : — 

" Cut out more work than can be done 
In Plato's year,* but finish none, 
Unless it be the bulls of Lenthal, 
That always pass'd for fundamental:"! 



PETER HEYLYK 

Peter Heylyn son of Henry Heylyn, descended from 
an ancient family of his name living at Pentrie-Heylyn 
in Montgomeryshire, was born here (Burford) 29 Nov. 
1599, and educated at the Grammar School. 

In the year 1613 he was placed by his father at Hart 
Hall ; | Oxford; two years afterwards he was chosen 

* The Platonic year, or time required for a complete revolution of 
the entire machine of the World, has by some been made to consist 
of 4,000 common years: others have thought it must extend to 
26,000, or still more. 

f The Ordinances published by the House of Commons were 
signed by Lenthall, the Speaker, and were therefore called " the bulls 
of Lenthal. 55 

They may be termed " fundamental," because many of them were 
issued by order of the Rump Parliament. 

% Afterwards Hertford College, and now St. Mary Magdalen Hall. 
" On May 3, 1820, the foundation-stone of the future residence of 
the Scholars of this Hall, was laid on the site of the dissolved College 
of Hertford) which obtained its name from an Inn possessed by one 
Ettas de Hertford, who let it out to Clerks about 1281, when it was 
called Hertford, or corruptly Hert, or Hart Hall. It was established 
as a Collegiate Hall in 1314, by Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of 



72 HISTOEY OF BUKFORD. 

Demi of Magdalen College, and took his B. A. degree in 
1617, and his M.A. in 1620. 

In 1623 he was ordained Deacon and Priest. 

In the latter end of 1628 he went as Chaplain to the 
Earl of Danby to the Isle of Guernsey, of which his 
Lordship was Governor. 

In Oct. 3 631, he was made Rector of Henningford, 
Huntingdonshire, and on 1 Nov. following the king gave 
him a Prebendship of Westminster. 

The next year the king bestowed on him the rich Par- 
sonage of Houghton-le-Spring, Durham, which, for his 
own convenience, the king allowed him to exchange for 
the Rectory of Ailresford, Hampshire. In 1633, he 
took his D.D. degree. 

Afterwards, being persecuted by the Parliamentarians 
who deprived him of his Church preferments, sequestrated 
his estates, and his family being in consequence reduced 
to urgent necessity, he in 1647 retired to Minster-Lovel, 
Oxfordshire, where, taking a farm of his Nephew, Col. 
Henry Heylyn, in the year following, he lived six years 
or more spending much of his time in writing Books. 

Thence he removed to Abingdon, Berks, where he 
bought a house and land called Lacies Court, five miles 
from Oxford. In 1660, upon his majesty's return to his 
kingdoms, he was restored to his Spiritualities, but never 
rose higher than Sub-Dean of Westminster. 

" Exeter, and was converted into a College in 1739 by its Principal, 
Dr. Richard Newton." 

Tymmi Family Topographer. Vol IV. p. 185. 



EMINENT MBIT. 73 

He was a warm defender of Dr. Laud, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, who was beheaded in 1644. 

Among his numerous writings the following have ob- 
tained the most prominent notice : — 

Microcosmus : or, A description of the great world. 

Cosmography. 

Ecclesia Vindicata: or, The Church of England 
justified. 

His Historical Tracts also contain much useful matter, 
The Cosmography was the last book that its author 
wrote with his own hand (1651), for after it was finished, 
his eyes failed him, that he could neither see to write 
nor read without the help of an Amanuensis, whom he 
kept to his dying day. He died on Ascension-day (May 
8) 1662, and was buried in St. Peter's church, West- 
minster. 

For fuller particulars of this eminent divine and voluminous 
Author, see Wood's Athen. Oxon. Yol. I. pp. 181 — 188. 



LUCIUS CARY. 

Lucius Gary, (son and heir of Henry Cary, Viscount 
Falkland, of Scotland, by Elizabeth, his wife, sole 
daughter and heir of Sir Lawrence Tanfield, Knt, Lord 
Chief Baron of the Exchequer,) afterwards Lord Falk- 
land, was born here (Burford) in the year 1610. When 
his father became Lord Deputy of Ireland, An. 1622, he 
took his son Lucius with him into that country, and 
placed him in T, inity College. Dublin; but upon his 



74 HISTOEY OF BUEFOED. 

return to England, he sent him to finish his studies at 
Oxford. 

His early life was spent in Poetry Midi polite learning, 
which caused him to be admired by the Poets of those 
times ; viz. : — 

Ben. Johnson has an epigram upon him in his 
Underwood, 2nd Vol. of his Works. 

Edmund Waller, of Beaconsfield, mentions him in 
hisPoems written on several occasions, p. 81. pub. 1668. 

Sir John Suckling, in his Poem called the Session of 
Poets, (p. 10. pub. 1648.) thus mentions him : — 

" He was of late so gone with Divinity, 
That he had almost forgot his Poetry, 
Though to say the truth (and Apollo did know it) 
He might have been both his Priest and his Poet." 

About the time of his father's death (in 1633), he be- 
came one of the Gentlemen of his Majesty's Privy 
Chamber ; and frequently retired to his house at Great 
Tew, and sometimes went to Oxford, to have the com- 
pany of, and conversation with, learned and witty men. 

In 1639, he was put in Commission for his Majesty in 
the expedition against the Scots ; and upon his safe re- 
turn, Abr. Cowley, the Prince of Poets and a great ad- 
mirer of him, makes honourable mention of him in his 
Works, printed in 1678. 

In the beginning of the year 1640 he was chosen a 
Member of the House of Commons, for Newport in the 
Isle of Wight. He was made Secretary of State, and 
ever after adhered to his Majesty, and was with him at 



EXINEXT MEX. 



Edge-hill fight, and afterwards at Oxford, where he dis- 
charged his office with a great deal of prudence. 

Of this Lucius Lord Falkland, Wood says, " This 
learned Author being with his Majesty King Charles I., 
at Newbury, in Berks, when he was about to fight the 
Kebels, he called for a clean shirt in the morning before 
the encounter began ; and being asked the reason for it, 
he answered that ' if he was slain in the battle they 
should not find his body in foul linnen/ Whereupon 
his friends endeavouring to dissuade him from going into 
the fight, as having no call to it, or that he was a mili- 
tary officer, he said c he was weary of the times and 
foresaw much misery to his own country, and did believe 
he should be out of it before night/ Into the battle 
therefore he did go, notwithstanding all persuasions to 
the contrary, and was there slain, 20 Sept. 1643, much 
lamented, as a great Parliamentarian* saith, of all that 
knew him, being a Gentleman of great parts, ingenuity 
and honour, courteous and just to all, and a passion- 
ate promoter of all endeavours of peace betivixt the 
King and Parliament: Whether the Church of Eng- 
land lost a friend by his death, some have doubted : 
sure it is, learning itself had a loss, and one of the greatest 
(as many Clergymen have said) that ever hapned in 
that or in the age before. His body was conveyed to 
Oxon, and afterwards to Great Tevj (before mentioned), 
where it was buried in the Church without being carried 
into his house there. Over his grave, tho there be" 

* Bulstrode Whitlock in his Memorials of English Affairs, printed 
1682. p. 70. a. 



76 HISTORY OF BUEFOED. 

" not yet any memory extant, yet Sir Franc. Worthy of 
Worthy in Yorkshire, Knight and Baronet, an admirer 
of his virtues and learning, who stiles him Musarum 
militumque patronus hath bestowed an Epitaph and an 
Elegy on him in his book intit. Characters and Elegies, 
printed 1646. His person was little and of no great 
strength, his hair blackish and somewhat shaggy, and 
his eye black and quick. He left behind him a most 
disconsolate widow named Letice, the daughter of Sir 
Rich. Morison, of Tooley-Park, in Leicestershire, 
Knight, the most devout, pious and virtuous woman of 
the time she lived in, who dying about the 35 year of 
her age was buried by her husband in Feb. 1646." 

Athen. Oxon. Vol.. I. p. 503. 

That most delightful Historian, Lord Clarendon, in 
his account of the battle of Newbury, thus writes : — 

" In this unhappy battle, was slain the Lord Viscount 
Falkland ; a person of such prodigious parts of learning 
and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetness and delight 
in conversation, of so flowing and obliging a humanity 
and goodness to mankind, and of that primitive sim- 
plicity and integrity of life, that if there were no other 
brand upon this odious and accursed Civil War, than that 
single loss, it must be most infamous, and execrable to 

all posterity." "In the morning before the 

battle, as always upon action, he was very cheerful, and 
put himself into the first rank of Lord Byron's regiment, 
then advancing upon the enemy, who had lined the 
hedges on both sides with Musqueteers ; from whence he 
was shot with a musquet in the lower part of the belly," 



EMINENT MEN. 77 

" and in the instant falling from his horse, his body was 
not found till the next morning ; till when, there was 
some hope he might have been a prisoner ; though his 
nearest friends, who knew his temper, received small 
comfort from that imagination. Thus fell that incom- 
parable young man, in the four and thirtieth year of his 
age, having so much dispatched the true business of life, 
that the eldest rarely attain to that immense knowledge, 
and the youngest enter not into the world with more 
innocency : whosoever leads such a life needs be the less 
anxious upon how short warning it is taken from him/' 

Clarendons Hist, of the Rebellion and Civil Wars. 
Yol. IT. pp. 270, 277. 

For fuller account of this Nobleman and his character see 
Clarendon's Hist. Vols. I. and II., and Wood's Athen. Oxon. Yol. I. 
p. 500, 1, 2, 3. 



THE SOKTES VIRGILI AN^E. 

An Anecdote of King Charles, I, and Lord Falkland, extracted from 
Historical Sketches of that king by W. D. Fellowes. 

The king being at Oxford, during the Civil Wars, went 
one day to see the Library, where he was shown, among 
other books, a Virgil nobly printed and exquisitely 
bound. The Lord Falkland, to divert the king, would 
have his Majesty make a trial of his fortune by the 
Sortes VirgiliancB, which everybody knows was an usual 
kind of Augury some ages past. Whereupon the king 
opening the book, the period which happened to come 



78 HISTOEY OF BUEFOED. 

up was that part of Dido's imprecation against JZneas, 
which Mr. Dry den translates thus : — 

" Yet, let a race untamed, and haughty foes, 
His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose ; 
Oppressed with numbers in th 5 unequal field, 
His men discouraged, and himself expelled ; 
Let him for succour sue from place to place, 
Torn from his subjects' and his son's embrace ; 
First let him see his friends in battle slain, 
And their untimely fate lament in vain ; 
And when at length the cruel war shall cease, 
On hard conditions may he buy his peace ; 
Nor let him then enjoy supreme command, 
But fall untimely by some hostile hand ; 
And lie unburied in the barren sand." 

Mieid. B. IY. 1. 88. 

It is said that King Charles seemed affected at this 
accident, and that the Lord Falkland, observing it, 
would likewise try his own fortune, in the same manner; 
hoping that he might fall upon some passage that could 
have no relation to his case, ^and thereby divert the 
king's thoughts from any impression the other might have 
made upon him. But the place that Falkland tumbled 
upon, was yet more suitable to his destiny, than the other 
had been to the king's ; being the following expression 
of Fvander, upon the untimely death of his son Pallas, 
as they are translated by the same hand : — 

" Pallas ! thou hast failed thy plighted word, 
To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword ; 
I warned thee, in vain, for well I knew 
What perils youthful ardour would pursue :" 



EMMTENT MEX. 79 

" That boiling blood would carry thee too far ; 
Young as thou wert iu dangers — raw in war ! 
Oh ! curst essay in arms — disastrous doom — 
Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come." 

Ibid. E. II. 1. 220. 

Fell owes. pp. 214, 21.5. 

The Lord Falkland's petition to the King in behalf of 
his rebellious Son* 

" Most humbly shewing, that I had a sonne, until I 
lost him, in your Highness displeasure, where I cannot 
seek him, because I have not will to find him there. 
Men say, there is a wild young man now prisoner in the 
Fleet, for measuring his actions by his own private sense. 
But now that for the same your Majesties hand hath ap- 
peared in his punishment, he bows" and humbles himself 
before, and to it : whether he be mine or not, I can dis- 
cern by no light, but that of your Eoyal Clemency ; for 
only in your forgiveness can I own him for mine. For- 
giveness is the glory of the supremest powers, and this 
the operation, that when it is extended in the greatest 
measure, it converts the greatest offenders into the" 

* He was his Lordship's second son, and succeeded to the Title 
and Estates on the death of his elder brother. He was wild and ex- 
travagant, and sold his deceased father's incomparable Library for a 
horse and a mare. 

Afterwards he reformed, and proved a man of learning and ability. 
This Henri/, Yiscount Falkland (ancestor of the present Viscount 
Falkland) represented the county of Oxford, and was made Lord 
Lieutenant of it, after the Restoration, and died April 2, 1663, aged 
29, or thereabouts, and was buried by the graves of his father and 
mother. 



80 HISTORY OF BUEFOED. 

" greatest lovers, and so makes purchase of the heart, an 
especial privilege peculiar and due to Sovereign Princes. 
If now your Majesty will vouchsafe, out of your own be- 
nignity to become a second nature, and restore that unto 
me which the first gave me, and vanity deprived me of, 
I shall keep my reckoning of the full number of my sons 
with comfort, and render the tribute of my most humble 
thankfulness; else my weak old memory must forget one/' 
Cabala, p. 238. Printed in London. 1663. 



" Who by their precedents of wit, 
T'outfast, outloiter, and outsit,* 
&c. &c. &c. &c." 

Butler's Hudibras. Part III. 
Canto II. Lines 897, 8. 

* By these arts and methods, the leaders on the Parliament side, 
defeated the purposes of the Loyalists, and carried such points in the 
House as were disagreeable to the sober part, and indeed, to the 
majority. 

Thus the remonstrance was carried, as Lord Clarendon says, 
merely by the hour of the night ; the debates being continued till two 
o'clock, and very many having withdrawn out of pure faintness and 
disability to attend the conclusion. 

The bill against Episcopacy, and others, were carried by outfast- 
ing, and outsitting those who opposed it : which made Lord Falkland 
say, "that they who hated Bishops, hated them worse than the 
Devil, and that they who loved them, did not love them so well as 
their dinner." . Clarendon's Hist. Vol. I. p. 216. 



EMINENT MEN. Si 

MARCHEMONT NEEDAM. 

Mavchemont Needam* son of March Needam, a 
Gentleman of Derbyshire, (B. A. of St. John's Coll :, and 
Gloucester Hall,*f- Oxford, afterwards an Attendant on 
the Lady Elizabeth Lucas, sister of John Lord Lucas, 
and wife of Sir William Walter, Bart :, of Sarsden, near 
this town) by Margery his wife, daughter of John 
Collier the Host of the George-Inn, then the principal 
place for the reception of Guests in Burford, was born 
here in August, 1620 ; and baptized on the 21st instant. 

His father dying in the year following, his mother was 
the next year after that married to the Rev. Christopher 
Glynn, Vicar of • this town, and Master of the Free- 
School here, under whom he received his early education. 

At about 14 years of age he was sent to All Souls' 
College,| Oxford, where he continued till he took his 
B.A. degree in 1637, and then removed to St. Mary's 
Hall for a time. 

* Not Needham or Neclham as spelt by Authors. 
The following is an exact copy of an entry in the Register Book 
in Burford church : — 

" 1620. BAPTISMES. 

Marchemont the Sonn of March Needam. 21. Aug." 

f Now Worcester College. 

% This College, so denominated from the directions given to the 
Society to pray for the souls of all the faithful deceased, was founded 
in 1437 by Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

The Author is of Founder's kin at this College. 



B2 history OP M'KFORD. 

He afterwards became an Usher in Merchant Taylor's 
»ol, but how long he continued there does not appear. 

Certain it is, thai upon the breaking out of the Civil 
War he became an under-clerk in Gray's Inn, and a 
weailii rcock political writer. 

The popular side Beamed to promise most emolument, 
and he therefore, in 1643, commenced a weekly Satire 
on the Court under the title of Mercv/rius B rit aniens, 
and trafl considered an useftil partisan on the side of the 
Parliament I [aving become popular, and being an active 
man among the Parliamentarians, he was commonly 
called Captain Nedha/nii of Bray's Inn, and what he 
said or wrote ked upon as QospeL 

About this time be turned his studies to Physic, and in 
1 i\ 15 1»» gan to ] it. 

After this, he was imprisoned in the Gatehouse for 
nsing the king in his publications, and upon some 
-ion ofsooni or affronl put upon him by his party he 
left tin* cause, and obtaining the favour of a known 
Royalist to introduce him into his Majesty's presence at 
Ha/mpton Court) an 1647, he knelt before him, and de- 
sired forgiveness for what he had written against him and 
his cause : which being readily granted, he kissed his 
Majesty's hand, and soon after wrote a new weekly paper 
entitled Mercurius Pragrnaticus. In this he was as 
satirical and witty against the Presbyterians as in the 
former he had been against the Royalists. When the 
factious party advanced in power, he judged it expedient 
to quit London ; and for some time secreted himself in 
the house of Dr. Peter Heylyn, at Minster LoveL near 



. J N 1 N I U I 

his native place. At length being du I, he was 

committed to X tad his life endangered, Lent/tail 

the Speaker of the House of Commons, who knew him 
well, and John Brad&ha/w, President of the High Court 
of Justice, not only obtained his pardon, but with promise 
of rewards and places, persuaded him to take up his pen 
for the Independents, then the prevalent party. 

In their service he published a third weekly paper, 
entitled Afercuruts Podticus, commenced in 1649, a 
work severely hostile to the cause of the Royalists. It 
was continued till the happy Restoration, (1660) when it 
was suppressed by order of the Council of State. 

After this, in 1 661, he, by giving money to a Courtier, 
obtained his pardon under the Great Seal, upon which he 
resumed the practice of Physic with considerable encou- 
ragement among the Dissenters till his death. 

Besides the Mercurii abovementioned he was the 
Author of a great number of fugitive and temporary poli- 
tical Pamphlets, which it is now superfluous to enumerate. 
One work of his, however, has escaped oblivion : its title 
is, a "Discourse oftjie excellency of a Free-State above 
Kingly government." London. 1650. published with the 
"Mercurius Politicus," and reprinted so lately as 1767. 
It is a learned and methodical work, full of illustrations 
from Greek and Roman history, often unnecessarily re- 
peated. Its foundation is the natural sovereignty of the 
people, which principle is ably supported and vindicated. 
This piece was thought worthy of a French translation in 
the year 1791. 

Another of his political works which may be noticed 



HISTOBY OF BUBFORD. 

was, a translation into English of Seidell s "M 
clausum," printed in fol. 1652 or thereabouts, to which 
he added an Appendix concerning the Sovereignty of 
the Kings of Grrot Iiritain on the Sea, entitled Ad- 
ditional Evi 

After the restoration of King Charles II. this copy 
was corrected by Jo,, us Howell, Gent ; and printed in 
London iii 1 662, 

The Author likewise displayed his five principles in 
his own profession, by a work entitled " MedelaMediciiue/' 
printed io 1665, in which he attempted to prove that 
\ man ought to be allowed to undertake the practice 
of Medicine without previous study in Schools, or the 
examination of l *. Bus medical heresy was re- 

futed by two D >f thai faculty, Fellows of the 

College of Phyeioiams, London, viz.: John Twyeden 
in his "Medicine reterum vindicata," &a; and Robert 
ickH/ng in his "Ifedela ignarantra," &c. 

Nadu ,u y in his Preface to a book entitled "A new 
idea of the practice of Physiek, by Franc de la Boe" 
pub. 1675, says, "four champion- were employed by the 
ColL of Physitians to write against this book. Two of 
which are gone already : the third I hear is often buried 
in ale at a place called The hole in the Wall* and the 
fourth hath asked me pardon before company, confessing 
that he was set on by th6 brotherhood of the con- 
federacy." 

The versatility of his principles, and the prostitution 

* Tkis was a noted Alehouse in Baldwin'* Gardens, ilolhom. 



KMIXJ.M KBB 85 

of his talents are apparent from the preceding sketch of 
his life. 

This Author died suddenly in the house of Mr. Kid* 
in Devreux Court, near Temple Bar, and was buried in 
the church of St, Clement Danes, 29 Nov. 1678. 

For fuller account sec Aihe*. Oxon. Vol. 1L pp 405 — 471. 
Mr ni commenced each Pragmaticus with the 

following verses : — 

" A Sect and Jesuit joined in hand, 
First taught the world to say, 
That Subjects ought to have command, 
And Princes to obey." 

" These both agreed to have no long, 
The Scotchman he went further, 
No Bishop — ' ly thing, 

S to reform by murder/' 

" Then th' Independent meek and sly, 
Most lowly lies at lurch, 
And so to put poor Jockie by, 
Resolves to have no Church.' 5 

" The King's dethroned! The Subjects bleed ! 
The Church hath no abode. 
Let us conclude the're all agreed, 
That 'sure there is no God' 3 

JOHN WILMOT. 

John Wilmot, afterwards Earl of Rochester, son of 
Henry Earl of Rochester, better known by the title of 
Lord Wilmot, so often mentioned in Clarendon's History, 
was born at Ditchley, near Woodstock, April 10, ] 648 ; 
and educated at the Grammar-School here (Burford). 



86 histoey of buefoed. 

In 1659, he entered a nobleman into Wadham Col- 
lege, and in 1661, was, with several other noble persons, 
created Master of Arts ; at which time he, and none else, 
was admitted into the fraternity by a kiss on the left 
cheek from the Chancellor of the University, Lord 
Clarendon. 

Afterwards he travelled into France and Italy, and at 
his return devoted himself to the Court, and was at length 
made one of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to King 
Charles II., and Comptroller of Woodstock Park. 

Having an active and inquisitive mind, he never, ex- 
cept in his paroxysms of intemperance, was wholly neg- 
ligent of study ; he read what is considered as polite 
learning so much, that he is mentioned by Wood as the 
greatest Scholar of all the Nobility. His favourite 
author in French was Boileau, and in English, Cowley. 

Though these accomplishments rendered him very ac- 
ceptable at Court, he quitted it to shew his readiness to 
hazard his life in the defence and service of his country, 
and shewed great courage in the attack made upon the 
Butch East India Fleet in the Port of Bergen in Nor- 
way in 1665. 

The summer following he went aboard the ship com- 
manded by Sir Edward Spragge, who, in the heat of the 
engagement, having a message of reproof to send to one 
of his Captains, could find no man ready to carry it but 
Wilmot, who, in an open boat, went and returned amidst 
the storm of shot. 

After his return from sea he associated with company 
who loved excess, and in this state he played many frolics 



EMINENT MEN. 87 

very often to the hazard of his life, which for his honour 
should not be published. 

Of this Lord Dr. Johnson observes, " at the age of 
one-and-thirty he had exhausted the fund of life, and re- 
duced himself to a state of weakness and decay. At this 
time he was led to an acquaintance with Dr. Burnet, to 
whom he laid open with great freedom the tenor of his 
opinions, and the course of his life, and from whom he re- 
ceived such conviction of the reasonableness of moral duty, 
and the truth of Christianity, as produced a total change 
both of his manners and opinions. 

The account of those salutary conferences is given by 
Burnet in a book, entitled, ' History of some passages of 
the life and death of John Earl of Rochester,' pub. in 
1680, which the critic ought to read for its elegance, the 
philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for its piety. 
It were an injury to the reader to offer him an abridge- 
ment/' Johnson's English Poets. 

This Earl died July 26, 1680, and was buried in 
Spelsbury church, Oxfordshire, leaving behind him a son 
named Charles, who dying Nov. 12, 1681, was buried by 
his father Dec. 7 following. He also left behind him 
three daughters, named Anne, Elizabeth, and Malet; so 
that the male line being extinct, his Majesty Charles II. 
conferred the title of Rochester on Laurence Viscount 
Killingworth, a younger son of Edward Earl of Cla- 
rendon. 

Lord Rochester was eminent for the vigour of his 
colloquial wit, and remarkable for many wild pranks and 
sallies of extravagance. 



88 HISTORY OF BURFORD. 

The glare of his general character diffused itself upon 
his writings ; the compositions of a man whose name was 
heard so often were certain of attention, and from many- 
readers certain of applause. This blaze of reputation is 
not yet quite extinguished, and- his poetry still retains 
some splendour beyond that which genius has bestowed. 

Wood and Burnet give us reason to believe, that much 
was imputed to him which he did not write. 

Eor fuller particulars of this Nobleman, see 
Athen. Oxon. Vol. II. pp. 488—491. 
Historical, Geographical; and Political Dictionary, 

pub. 1694. 
Royal and Noble Authors of England, Vol II. 

p. 43—48. 
Burnet, and 
The lives of the English Poets by Dr. Johnson. 



CHARLES JENKINSOK 

Charles Jenkinson was born May 1 6, 1727, and re- 
ceived the first rudiments of his education at the Gram- 
mar-School here. He took his B. A. and M. A. degrees at 
Oxford, and in 1753 removed from this University and 
commenced his career as a man of letters, and is said to 
have supplied materials for the Monthly Review. 

He next commenced political writer ; and in 1756, 
puplished a Dissertation on the Establishment of a Na- 
tional and Constitutional Force in England, independent 
of a standing army. 



eminent: men. 89 

Soon after this he wrote, " A Discourse on the conduct 
of the government of Great Britain, with respect to 
neutral Nations during the present War/' 

In 1763, he was Secretary to the Treasury. 

In 1766, he was nominated a Lord of the Admiralty. 

From 1767 to 1773, a Lord of the Treasury. 

In 1772, he was appointed one of the Vice-treasurers 
of Ireland. 

In 1778, he was elevated to the post of Secretary of 
War. 

In 1786, he was nominated to the lucrative post of 
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, created Baron of 
Hawkesbury, in the county of Gloucester. 

He was created Earl of Liverpool, May 18, 1796. 

Besides the works that have already been mentioned, 
his Lordship was the Author of the following : — 

" A collection of all Treaties of Peace, Alliance, and 
Commerce between Great Britain and other Powers, from 
the Treaty of Munster in 1648, to the treaties signed at 
Paris in 1783." 3 Vols. 8vo. 1785. And " A Treatise on 
the Coins of England, in a letter to the King." 4to. 1805. 

His Lordship was married, first, in 1769, to Miss 
Amelia Watts, daughter of the Governor of Fort Wil- 
liam, in Bengali, by whom he had a son ; and secondly, 
June 22, 1782, to Catherine, daughter of the late Sir 
Cecil Bishop, Bart., and widow of Sir Charles Cope, by . 
whom he left a son and daughter, viz. : The Hon. 
Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, M.P. for Sandwich ; and 
Lady Charlotte, married to the Viscount Grimstone. 

His Lordship died Dec. 17, 180S. 



90 IIISTORY OF BURFORD. 

SIR WILLIAM BEECHEY, KNT. R.A. 

William Beechey was born here (Burford) in the year 
1753, and was at a proper age placed under an eminent 
Conveyancer at Stow, Gloucestershire. A volatile flow 
of spirits, a bright and active imagination, and a mind 
eagerly bent upon enquiry, was not to be chained to the 
desk of a provincial Conveyancer long enough to acquire 
any deep insight into that abstruse profession. 

He had heard much of London — he wished to see 
London — and to London he accordingly went. 

There he articled himself for a given period to a gen- 
tleman who died before the expiration of his time, when 
he made a second engagement with a Mr. Owen, of 
Tooke's Court. 

He accidentally became acquainted with several stu- 
dents of the Royal Academy. The objects in which they 
were engaged attracted and enchanted him : by the 
splendid assemblage of colours which they mixed upon 
the Palette, and transferred to the canvass, his eye was 
delighted ; and, by the field thus opened to him, his dis- 
gust at his original profession increased, and he deter- 
mined to change his pen for the pencil, his inkstand for 
the colour-box, and his desk for the easil. 

He was 

" Early foredoom' d his father's soul to cross, 
And paint a picture when he should engross." 

So powerful was this new attachment, that he did not 
wait till the expiration of his agreement, but prevailed 




- T p " -_: r- V 



Knt. R-A. 



EMINENT MEN. 91 

upon Mr. Owen to accept of a young man whom he had 
procured to supply his place, as a substitute for the re- 
maining time of his Articles, and in 1772 he commenced 
a Student in the Royal Academy. 

Considering the number of admirable pictures which 
this Artist has painted, to point out any in particular, 
may be deemed rather invidious to such as are not men- 
tioned. 

To those who can appreciate their various merits, it 
would be unnecessary ; to those who cannot, it might be 
uninteresting. 

With respect to his general merit as an Artist, we 
honour him for his originality, as it shews a noble daring, 
and gives him a much greater chance of attaining excel- 
lence in his profession than those have who servilely walk 
in the track marked out by others. 

When he was little more than 36 years of age, and 
painting was at a low ebb, he was the first Artist of his 
day ; and he continued at the head of his profession until 
his death, being in the last year of his life as superior to 
his pupils and followers as he was at first. 

In 1793 Mr. Beechey was elected an Associate, and 
appointed portrait painter to the Queen, and a Royal 
Academician in 1797. 

In 1798 he executed his principal work, a large 
equestrian picture of George III., the Prince of Wales, 
and the Duke of York ; attended by Generals Dundas, 
Sir W. Fawcett, and Goldswortk, reviewing the 3rd and 
10th Dragoons ; for which he was knighted by the 
King. 



92 



HISTOHY OF BTJRFOED. 



He died in January, ] 839, aged 86 years ; and was 
buried at Hampsteacl with Academic honours. 

Both in morals and painting, he was eminently a res- 
pectable man. 

Eor fuller account of Sir IF. Becchey, 
see Biographical Works. 




(93) 



CHAPTER VI. 

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 

BURFORD. 

The soil inclines much to gravel, with intervening 
tracts of black loam and clay. Many parts of this dis- 
trict are low and wet, abounding with meadow and pas- 
ture ground. 

The Church here was united with Fulbrook Chapelry 
as early as the year 1228 as a Document exists to prove, 
and how long before the Author cannot ascertain. 

It vjas in the gift of the Abbot of Keynsham, Somer- 
setshire. It is now in the patronage of the Lord Bishop 
of Oxford, value i?294 per an. 

The Pancake-bell is rung here on Shrove-Tuesday 
yearly just at dinner-time. 

Philip Dilwyn said, "Why does the church bell ring 
only on Shrove-tuesday in the year, just at dinner-time ? 
And why does everybody call it pancake-bell V 

" I believe Charley, that the bell was formerly tolled 
with [a very different object, namely, to call people to 
church ; not for the purpose of bidding them pour the 
butter into the frying-pan/-' 



94 H1SI0KY OF BUKFORD. 

" The bell continued to toll, (perhaps as a witness against 
them) though folks ceased to come to church ; and when 
the real reason why they were invited to come to church 
at this time was forgotten, ignorant persons took it into 
their heads that it had some connexion with pancakes." 

Rev. F. E. Paget s Tract called 
Tlie Pancake-bell. p. 5. 

" It is called Shrove-tuesday, because in old times the 
people used to go and ' shrive/ or confess themselves to 
the Priest. And no doubt the tolling of the bell on this 
day was originally intended for the purpose of calling 
the people to confession, and not, as is supposed now-a- 
days^ to remind them to prepare their dinners/' 

Paget, p. 10. 

The tables of Benefactions in the Church here record 
numerous Charities which have been left at various times, 
not only for the relief of the Poor, but for many other 
purposes.* It is unpleasing to find that these well in- 



* On the west wall of Sylvester's Aisle in a stone monument (cased 
over with wood) is a well-executed painted stone figure and under- 
neath the following inscription : — 

The Statue of that worthy benefactor, John Harris, 
late Alderman and Major of the city of Oxford : and 
native of this place. He gave to the poore of ys Towne 
of Bur-ford £200 to be thus disposed (vizt:) one £100 to 
be lent unto Tradesmen gratis, & the profit of the other £100 
to place out children Apprentices. He died the 14 th of 
August 1674?. 

Erected in grateful memory ") -r • -L i -n- • -> 

at the charges of this Towne [ IS* ^ w^ I Bayliffs. 

it, flm f,'mp nf ^ — ^ i Edmund Hemmg j ' 



in the time of 



■^O* t^-i 



MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 95 

tended bequests have of late years suffered considerably 
from a want of due attention. It is to be toped that the 
Charity-Commissioners (who have the management now) 
will guard every charity of the town from dilapidation 
and mismanagement in future. 

The following is a copy of an inscription on a flat stone 
within the Altar-rails of this Church : — 
" Here Lyeth the body of 
John Pryor, Gent : who was 
murdered and found hidden 
in the Priory garden in this 
parish the 3 d : day of April 
Anno Domini 1697 : and was 
Buried the 6 th : day of the same 
month in the 6 7 th : yeare 
of his age." 

On a flat stone in the floor of the Nave, under the 
Organ-loft, are representations in bronze of a man and 
his wife in a praying posture. Beneath them is the fol- 
lowing inscription in old English : — 

" I pray yow all for charite hertely that ye pray for me. To 

oure Lord that syttith on hye. 
Eul of grace and of mercye, The wiche rode soler* in this chirche 

upon my cost y dede do wuche. 
TV t. a laumpe birnyng bright to worschip God both day 

& nyght, and a gabul-wyndowf dede do make. 
In helth of Soule & for Crist sake, now J hu that dydyst 

on a tre on us have mercy & pite. Ame." 

* The word Rode-Soler (Rood-Solar) means Rood-loft in a church. 
Solar meaning a loft or upper chamber, and is probably used in this 
instance on account of the rhyme, as it is not commonly used. 

f The Author believes this window to be the one now in St. 



96 HISTOEY OF BURFORD. 

On the brass scroll issuing from the man's mouth this : 

"Mary Moder Mayde, Chr have nicy on me Jon Spycer." 

On the brass scroll issuing from the woman's mouth this : 

" And on me Alys his wyff, Lady for thi joyes fyve." 

On brass plates round the stone, the first part of which 
is gone, this inscription : — 

" qnidem Johnes obiit in vigilia purifi- 

^* . 
cacinis beatissime virginis Marie anno Domini 

millmo CCCC tricessimo septimo qnor anime et 

omiiiu fideliu defmictor per misericordiam dei 

in pace reqniescant. Ame." 

The inscriptions on Altar-tombs, Marble-tablets, and 
flat stones are far too numerous and lengthy to be in- 
serted in this Work. 

An account of the Charities was published by the 
Charity-Commissioners in 1827, and to which the Author 
refers the Reader. 

Here is a Free-School, founded in the year 1571 by 
Symon Wysdom who endowed it with the rent of some 
land and of several houses in the town, for the main- 
tenance of a Master and Usher, who are to instruct the 
boys of the place in Grammar, Reading, and Writing. 

The Visitor of the School, according to the Founder's 
Will dated December 1586, was to be his Heir for ever. 

Thomas's Chapel, it being the only gable- window in the chnrch. In 
tliis chapel the place formerly occupied by an Altar is perceptible, and 
there is a provision in the will of John Spicer ordering that lights 
should always be kept burning there. 






Mill 

iiiiiii 



■::S 



|||!"' ; J 
i'»'|||f; |j|| 

iiiiiiil 




m&mSmWm ' . • J 



MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 97 

This privilege was enjoyed by Mr. Robert Wysdom, of 
Shipton, but in 1743 his Title to Visitor was disputed on 
the ground of his not being the lawful Heir, and it was 
afterwards enjoyed by the Corporation of this town. 

Many persons of considerable eminence were formerly 
educated here, as noticed in Chapter V. 

The School has been void for some months past, in 
consequence of the non-appointment of a Master, through 
neglect ; the building, however, is the same as when 
erected with the exception that a few years ago a high 
wall was built round the garden and front of the mas- 
ter's house which before were open to the Church-Green. 

Here are also three Almshouses for poor Widows, but 
each is very slenderly endowed, viz : 

The Wysdom Almshouse in Church-lane has been 
allowed to fall into ruins. 

The one on Church-Green (being 2 Tenements) was 
founded in the year 1457, by the Earl of Warwick, for 8 
aged women, and is still occupied and in good repair. 

And the third (being 4 Tenements in a yard called 
Castle-yard, in Guildenford,) was given, in 1726, by the 
Will of John Castle, Pyhsician, to the use of 4 poor el- 
derly Widows of this town, with endowments for them. 

Getting a prize : — Mr. Lentkall, who was descended 
from the Speaker of that name, while he lived at the 
Priory here, had a very good butler, who one morning 
came to him with a letter in his hand, and rubbing his 
forehead in that indescribable manner, which is an 



98 HISTORY OF BURFORD. 

introduction to something which the person does not well 
know how to communicate, told Mr. Lenthall that he 
was very sorry to be obliged to leave his service. 

" Why, what is the matter John ? has anybody 
offended you ? I thought you were as happy as any man 
could be in your situation/' 

" Yes, please your Honour, that's not the thing, but I 
have just got a prize in the lottery of ^3000, and I have 
all my life had a wish to live for one twelvemonth like a 
man of two or three thousand a year, and all I ask of 
your Honour is, that when I have spent the money, you 
will take me back again into your service/' 

" That is a promise/' said Mr. Lenthall, "which I be- 
lieve I may safely make, as there is very little probability 
of your wishing to return to be a butler after having lived 
as a gentleman/' 

Mr. Lenthall was, however, mistaken. John spent 
nearly the amount of his ticket in less than a year. He 
had previously bought himself a small annuity to provide 
for his old age ; when he had spent all the rest of his 
money, he actually returned to the service of Mr. Lenthall, 
with whom he lived many years. 

\ Baptisms commence 25 March 1612. 

. > Marriages do. 18 April 1613. 

Me ^ sters: -) Burials do. 28 April 1612. 

The Rev. J. H. Burgess, the Vicar, was presented to 
the living (which is a discharged Vicarage with the 
Chapelry of Fulbrook rated in the Liber Regis at 



MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 99 

i?13 „ 13 u 0, but now worth nearly ^300 per annum,) 
by the Patron, and instituted 16 April, 1860. 

The tithes, the property of the Bishop of Oxford and 
the Vicar, were commuted for land in the year 1794. 

FULBROOK. 

The Manor of Fulbrooh formerly belonged to Hugh 
le Despencer, the elder, Earl of Winchester, but upon the 
downfall of that familyit was seized by King Edward III., 
and in the 6th year of his reign, (1333) it was given to 
Maurice Lord Berkeley for his life. At his death the 
Manor reverted to the Crown, and in the time of King 
Edward IV., (1461 to 1483) it was given to Lord Brook, 
a favourite of the House of York ; at his death it des- 
cended to his son John Lord Brook. 

At the present day it is possessed by a few Proprietors ; 
the old Manor-house is in a dilapidated state, and occu- 
pied as a Farm-house. 




LofC. 



(100) 



APPENDIX. 

NOTES. 

A. 

Thames, the finest river in Great Britain, takes its 
rise from a copious spring, called Thame-Head 2 miles 
S.W. of Cirencester, Gloucestershire. 

It has been erroneously stated that its name is Isis till 
it arrives at Dorchester, 15 miles below Oxford, when 
being joined by the Thame or Tame it assumes the name 
of Thames. « 

But Camden says that the river was always called 
Thames, or Terns, before it came near the Thame; and 
in several ancient Charters granted to the Abbey of 
Malmesbuvy, as well as that of Ensham ; and in the 
old Deeds relating to Cricklade it is never considered 
under any other name than that of Thames. 

All the Historians, who mention the incursions of 
Ethelwold, and Canute, into Wiltshire, concur likewise 
in the same opinion, by declaring that they passed over 
the Thames at Cricklade, in Wiltshire. 

B. 

Radxot-bvidge is one of the oldest structures of its 
kind over the Thames, and consists of 3 arches. In con- 



APPENDIX. NOTES. 101 

sequence of a cut completed in 1787, the stream which 
now flows through them is deserted by traffic. 

It was close by that a conflict took place in the days of 
Kichard II., A.D. 1387, between Robert de Vere, Earl of 
Oxford, and several of the nobility, who envied his high 
favour with the Crown ; upon whom, amongst other 
titles, had been conferred the title of Duke of Ireland. 

In consequence of an insurrection of the Nobles, this 
Earl fled beyond the sea, of whom Dugdale thus 
writes: — 

" But long it was not 'ere he landed in England again 
with about four or five thousand men ; and being got 
into Oxfordshire, came to Radcot Bridge upon the river 
Isis, on the Feast day of S. Thomas the Apostle ; 
which bridge Henry Earl of Derby had broken in three 
places ; and fixed souldiers there, to stop his farther pas- 
sage. The Duke therefore seeing himself in this des- 
perate condition, and that the E. of Derby with his power, 
was not far distant, displaid the King's banner, and 
animated his men to fight ; advancing before them to 
the Bridge : which being not passable, he allighted from 
his Horse, and mounted another ; purposing to avoid his 
Enemies by swimming the River : but, being invironed 
by the Duke of Gloucester, on the one side, and the Earle 
of Derby on the other side ; he threw away his Sword, 
Gauntlets, and Armor, and leaping into the River, es- 
caped them. In their pursuit of him, it is said, that 
his Charriot was taken ; and in it the King's letters, ap- 
pointing him to hast to London, with what strength he 
had ; expressing that he would there be ready to live 
and dye with him/ ; 



102 HISTOEY OF BT7KFOED. 

" The Lords therefore being thus powerfull, caused the 
King to summon a Parliament at Westminster. Which 
being done ; and this Duke (amongst others) called, to 
make answer to certain Articles of High Treason, then 
and there exhibited, against him, by the Duke of Glou- 
cester, and others ; not appearing, he was forthwith 
banished ; and all his possessions confiscated, excepting 
his entailed Lands ; which only were to his right Heirs. 

Upon this banishment, being likewise attainted, Out- 
lawed, and fled beyond-Sea, he was at length stricken by 
a Wild-Boar, in Hunting ; and died of his hurts at 
Lovaine, in anno 1392. (16 Rich. 2.) in great distress 
and penury. About three years after which ; viz. in 
November, ann. 1395. (19 "JR. 2.) the king having caused 
his body to be brought over into England, made a 
solemne funeral for him at Oolne in Essex ; being present 
himself thereat with many of the Bishops ; but few of 
the temporal Lords, their old hatred towards him being 
not then abated/' Baronage, p. 195. 

C. 

Origin and derivation of Tolsey or Toll-booth. 

Toll. Lat. Tolnetum, Thelonium. Grk. TcyoSwov. 

Tolsey, n. A place at which tolls were set or assessed ; 
a tollbooth or custom-house where toll is paid ; an ex- 
change or place of receiving, the receipt of custom. 

" He saw Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom." 

Matt. ix. 9. 

In the Saxon Charters Thol was the liberty of buying 
and selling, or keeping a market in such a Manor. 

In later times, it signified the customary dues or rent 



APPENDIX. NOTES. 103 

paid to a Lord of a Manor for his profits of the Fair or 
Market, called the Tolling-pence. 

Mon. Aug. torn. 2. p. 286. 
Alexander Bishop of Lincoln gave to the Abbey of 
Thame, — centum solidos de thelonio Bannebirice, i. e., 
one hundred shillings yearly rent out of his toll in 
Banbury. Mon. Ang. torn. 1. p. 525. 

King Henry II. granted a privilege to the Tenants and 
Traders within the Honor of Wallingford, — ut quieti 
sint de thelonio, &c. R. Dods. M.S. vol. 114. f. 40. 

Edmund Earl of Cornwall granted to the Rector and 
Bonhommes of Asherugge and their Tenants, — ut in 
omnibus burgis et villatis nostris et etiam in singulis 
nundinis et mercatis nostris libere valeant emere et 
vendere omnes mercandisas absque ullo theoloneto seu 
stallagio nobis vel hceredibus nostris inde presentando. 

Mon. Ang. torn. 3. p. 69. 

Hence the Toll-booth or Tol-sey, or place where such 
custom was paid. This Toll at public Fairs and Mar- 
kets was paid at the sound of a Bell, as we have now a 
market-bell, which possibly might give name to the 
tolling of a bell, and to the proverb of tolVd in, or drawn 
into a bargain. 

In Derbyshire they say, Thole a while, that is, stay 
a while. 

Toll-booth, v.a. To imprison in a tollbooth. 

"That they might tollbooth Oxford men." 

Bp. Corbett. 



104 HISTORY OF I5UB/FORI). 



D. 



The yearly value of the Guild of our Lady in the 
parish of Burford was £16 „ 10 „ 10. 

The Brethren of the said Guild did at their own cost 
and charge build the Chapel of our Lady annexed to the 
Parish church merely out of their devotion, and did find 
a Priest to minister there, and to teach children freely. 

After that, at divers times certain men out of their de- 
votions gave by Will and feoffment unto the said Guild 
lands and tenements to find a Priest, and to help poor 
people, and to mend the high-ways, and the common 
bridges of the Town, and use it as it hath been always 
used. 

By Deed dated 11 March ]517 Thomas Pynnock con- 
veyed to Kicharcl Hannes and others two Cottages lying 
in the Coke-row in High Street to the intent that they 
should suffer the Proctors of St. Thomas's Chapel in the 
Church of Burford to receive the rents to the use of the 
Service of God in the said Chapel and to the sustenta- 
tion of the said Chapel. 

This property was afterwards applied to the mainte- 
nance of the Bridge and ways, and is called in the Charity 
Commissioners' Report of 1827, 

The Bridge Estate. 

E. 

The answer to the riddle, is of course, 
A, B, I, N, D U N. 



APPENDIX. NOTES. 105 

F. 

There is, I am told,, under the whitewash on this wall 
somewhere above the Pulpit a painting of St. Christo- 
pher. The parable of this Saint is as follows : — 

He was of the land of Canaan, a giant of mighty 
strength, and he made up his mind that he would serve 
only the greatest and mightiest Sovereign. He went 
therefore to the Court of a Monarch whom men called 
the most powerful, and the Monarch received him most 
gladly. One day came a Minstrel, and in his song was 
frequent mention of the Evil One. And when the King 
heard his name, he crossed himself. Christopher asked 
him wherefore he did this, and the king replied, " It is 
to save me from the power of Satan/' " Thou fearest 
Satan/' said the giant, "he is greater then than thou art ; 
him will I serve/' So he departed. He journed far 
away and met a troop of armed men, and at their head 
was a terrible being who asked him, "Whither goest 
thou?" "I am seeking Satan/' answered Christopher. 
" Behold, I am he," was the answer, and the giant served 
a new master. Soon he found that Satan dared not pass 
a cross by the wayside. He asked him, wherefore ? And 
Satan answered, " I fear Christ Jesus who died on the 
Cross." 

So the giant found there was a greater Monarch still, 
and he sought him far and wide. 

At last he asked a holy Hermit, the Hermit answered, 
" Duties many and hard will thy new master give thee, 
if thou findest him; Thou must fast." "Nay," said 



106 HISTORY OF BURFOED. 

Christopher, " by so doing I should lose my strength/' 
" Thou must pray." " Of prayers/' answered Christopher, 
" I know nothing." Then said the Hermit, " Fetch thy- 
self a staff, and go to that river and save all who struggle 
with the water." Then Christopher was content, and 
went to fetch his staff for the service. Day and night he 
was ready bearing the weak upon his shoulders and 
guiding the strong with his hand, he never wearied, and 
the Lord looked down from heaven and said, " Behold 
the man hath found the way to serve me." 

And it came to pass one night as Christopher was rest- 
ing after his toil that he seemed to hear a voice call, 
" Christopher carry me over," but he saw nothing. Once 
more he heard the soft call of a child, " Christopher carry 
me over tonight." And he went forth, and lo, a child 
sat waiting on the river's bank. So the giant placed him 
on his shoulder and set out. The wind blew, and the 
waters rose higher and higher, and the child grew heavy 
that the strong man's strength well nigh failed him. But 
with his courageous heart and trusty staff he reached the 
shore. 

" Who art thou child ? Thou art heavy even as the 
world might be." And the child answered, "Thy service 
is accepted Christopher, plant thy staff and it shall bear 
leaves and fruit." And then he vanished. But Christo- 
pher knew that he had borne the Lord, and he fell on 
his face, for he had learnt now to worship as well as 
serve. 



APPENDIX. XOTES. 107 



G. 



Edmundus Harnianus, Armiger. qui D. Dens inu- 
. meris beneficiis ab ineute setate presqutus est 
Hoc Xpianse memorise monumentum sibi et agneti 
Unicse et castissimae conjugi et 16 liberis deo bene 
Dicete exilla susceptis posuit. 1569. 

Nullus eram, et faciete Deo sum natus ut esse. 

H-l 

Jam nuc de proprio semine rursus ero. 
Inque die magna quae nuc absupta putamus. 
Corpora cernemus surgere tota Deo. 

Yellite corde metu mea mebra, et credite vosmet 

Cum Christo reditura Deo, nam vos gerit ille 

Et secum revocat, morbos ridete minaces, 

Inflictos casus contenite, et atra sepulchra 

Despicite. Exurgens quo Christus provoeat, ite. 

i— i 
Christus erit cunctis regnu, lux, vita, corona. 

The arms above are— 

1st. Three curricombs. 

2nd. On a bend between two fleurs de lis, three martlets. 

3rd. A chevron ingrailed between three owls. 

4th. A fess dancy between six cross-crosslets. 

The Crest : — A lion's paw holding a poleaxe. 
Under the inscription are images of his nine sons and 
seven daughters, all kneeling. 

H. 

TANFIELVS MONUMENT. 
On the ground, a skeleton personating Death. 
Over it a table of black marble, supported by small 
pillars of the same, upon it a man on his back in Judge's 



108 HISTOEY OF BUEFOED. 

robes with a collar of Esses ; and his wife also upon her 
back. 

All arched over, the arch being supported by six pillars 
of black marble, and four square ones at the corners ; at 
the head, a young woman in a gowne, with a cloak on, 
and a collar of Esses, kneeling, with hands erect ; under 
her a table of black marble and upon it this inscription : — 
Not this small hcape of stones & straightnd Roome, 
The Benche, the Court e, Tribunall, are his Tombe, 
This but his dust, but these his name interre, 
And these indeed now but a sepulcher, 
Whose meritts only raised him, and made good 
His standing there, where few so long have stood, 
Pitty Ins memory ingaged should stand 
Unto a private church, not to the land. 

On the south side this : — 

Here lyeth interr'd Sir Laurence Tanfield, Kt: sometime 
one of y e Justices of his Maj ties Bench, & late Lo: Cheife 
Baron of y e Excheq:, who continued those places of 
Judicature 20 yeares, wher e in hee survived all the 
Judges in every Bench at Westminster. 
He left behinde him one onely daught r . and heire, who 
married w th Henry, Lord Yiscount Falkland, Lo: Deputy 
Generall of Ireland • hee deceased y e 30 of Aprill An<>. 1.625. 
His noble & vertuous lady to y e memory of her most 
honour' d husband hath erected this monument of his 
vertues and her sorrowes. 

At the feet of the two effigies their Crests, viz. : — 

1. On a wreath, ar. and sa. a maid from the middle, ar. crined, or. 
a wreath of roses round her head, gu. and a necklace, gu. 

2. On a wreath, ar. andsa. a swan proper. 

Between these Crests, a man in' military costume 



APPENDIX. NOTES. 109 

with hands erect, kneeling; and under him the fol- 
lowing : — 

Paucam des operam sibi viator, 

Non ignobile, te rogat sepulchrum, 

Olim inter monumenta sanctiora & 

Nepoti critico labor futurus. 

His nempe in spatiis sitns quiescit 

Angli prsecipuus fori togaeq : 

Juris gloria, judicumq : faina 

Prudens causiclicus, pius senator 

Quo nemo scelus imbrobe redemit. 

Leni judice, factus baud rninori 

Insons crhnine quam fuit scelest'. 

Qui nullo pretio malus, nee unquara 

Yectigal sibi fecerat tribunal 

Puris divitiis honor e casto 

Atq : amplissirnus unus innocenter, 

Nee vitse minor artib', domusq : 

Attentissim 5 , & probe severus 

Et rerum bene diligens suarum, 

Parens providus, optim 5 maritus 

Cunctis officiis nimis probatus, 

Dicam nornen, & hsec minora dixi 

Tanfeildus Baro ; jam tibi scienti 

Narro cuncta sup r nuus, tibi ipse 
Absolves Epitapbium Yiator. 

On the north side this ; — 

Here shadowe He, So shall I be, 

Whilst life is sadd, With him I loved : 

Still hopes to die, And hee with mee, 

To him she hadd, And both us blessed. 

In blisse is hee, Love made me Poet, 

Whom I lov'd best : And this I writt : 

Thrise happy shee My harte did doe yt, 

With him to rest. And not my witt. 

The Canopy represents the firmament, being profusely 
studded with Cherubs' faces and stars. 



110 HISTOKY OF BUEFOED. 

At the top over all, at the corners : — 

Tanfield Arms, ar. 2 chevrons bet. three martlets sa. qu. ar. 
a chevron sa. between three griffins heads rased gu. 
The Crest as the first of the former. 
Tanfield imp. B. three trefoils slipped or. 

About the monument several quotations from Scrip- 
ture. 

Note. — The following are copies of Entries in the Burgesses' Ac- 
count-book commencing with the year 1663 : — 

" Dec r . 25 : 1703. Y e Lady Tanfields mony disposed by 
John Haynes, Will Boules, Bailiffs. 
Pd. John Bobbins for keeping the Tombe £1 „ „ 0. 
The Tombe being damaged by the huricane there 
was noe mony for the Widdows this yeare." 

" The year 1707. The Widdows had not any of the 
Lady Tanfields mony by reason the top of the 
Steeple was blown down and fell upon the He 
and damnified the Tombe." 

According to Lady Tanfield' s Will, dated June, 1629, she left 
money to be paid half yearly to six poor widows, which sums of 
money were applied in the years 1703 and 1707 'to repairing the 
tomb. 

I. 

Domesday -Booh. When King Alfred divided his 
kingdom into Counties, Hundreds, and Tithings, he had 
an Inquisition taken of the several districts and digested 
into a Eegister called Dom-boc, i. e., the judicial or 
judgment book, reposited in the church of Winchester, 



APPENDIX. NOTES. Ill 

and thence entitled Codex Wintoniensis, to which King- 
Edward, Sen. seems to refer in the first chapter of his 
laws. 

The general survey taken by King William the Con- 
queror was after the precedent of King Alfred, and 
seems but a corruption of, or rather an addition to, the 
same name, Dom-boc into Domesday-book. And there- 
fore a trifling derivation to impute the name to Domus 
Dei, as if so called from the Church wherein it was first 
reposited. Nor is it any wiser conjecture to ascribe it to 
Doomsday or the final day of judgment. When the 
appellation does really imply no more than the Doom- 
book, or Register from which sentence and judgment 
might be given in the tenure of estates : whence by Latin 
writers commonly called Liber Judicialis. 



K. 



A Hide was about 100 acres of land, but seems to have 
been never precisely determined. Some suppose it to 
have been the old Saxon measure, here reduced to the 
new measure of Carucates. 

The Carucate was as much arable land as could be 
managed with one plough and the beasts belonging to it 
in a year. It also was a variable measure, varying at 
different times and places from about 60 to rather less 
than 200 acres. 

In the Domesday-book it is said in Leicestershire that 
14 Carucates and a half make a Hide ; in Lancashire 
that 6 Carucates make a Hide. 



112 HISTORY OF BTJRFORD. 

Bondmen, perhaps household bondmen, as distinct 
from the Villanes who were the agricultural bondmen, 
and had lands and houses assigned to them. 

The Bordars were Cottagers, from the Anglo-Saxon 
Bord a cottage. They are supposed to have been in not 
so servile a condition as the others. 

L. 

The following account is extracted from the Gentle- 
man's Magazine of August, 1799 : — 

" In a handsome room upstairs are many pictures. At 
the end hangs one of Speaker Lenthall in his robes, 
seated in a chair, his lady sitting by him. On his right 
hand stand two sons, the eldest a youth, the other in 
petticoats, a feather in his cap. Behind stand two 
daughters, one of which is particularly handsome, and in 
front is another daughter. On the right-hand side of the 
room hangs the famous picture of the Chancellor Sir 
Thomas More, and his family. The first figure is Sir 
John More, his father, in a red gown, seated. On his left 
is Sir Thomas, in a black gown, his collar on, also seated. 
On his left stands his son, in black, reading ; and behind 
the two first stands a lady, who was a Ward of the Chan- 
cellor, and married to his son. To the left of the son, in 
front, are the three daughters of Sir Thomas, Margaret, 
Cecilia, and Elizabeth ; the two former are sitting, in 
conversation, the latter stands behind them. On their 
left are some relations of the family ; an elderly man and 
his wife, seated ; behind them stand two sons, Christopher 
and Thomas More, the former a man about 30, the latter" 



APPENDIX. NOTES. 113 

"a youth about 18; all dressed in black, and each figure 
has a book in hand. Over the last group is represented 
a picture of a lady, the wife of Sir John. Over several 
of the heads are Coats of Arms with the Wife's arms 
empaled. Qu, Whether the last group are not the 
family seated at Loxeley, near Guildford in Surrey? 
Near this hangs a picture of the great Duke of Tuscany, 
and Machiavel, his Secretary, writing, and taking instruc- 
tions from the Duke. There are several portraits : Oliver 
Cromwell (behind the door) ; Sir Kenelm Digby ; the 
Earl of Pembroke, with his staff as Lord Chamberlain ; 
the Earl of Holland ; two of King Charles the First ; 
Gondemar, the Spanish Ambassador (over the door) ; 
and several other Noblemen/' 

The staircase leading to this room, the Author has been 
informed was hung with portraits of the Tanfield and 
Falkland families, and their friends. 

M. 

Over this entrance are two human figures of stone, 
before alluded to, between which are the Speaker Len- 
ihalVs arms of six quarterings, viz. :— 

1. Lenthall. 

2. Brandon. 

3. Pipards. 
4>. Badby. 

5. Willie. 

6. Southwell. 

Above the Shield is his Crest. 



114 HISTORY OF BTJE3TOKD. 

These arms were in the centre of the South-wing, 
which was built by the Speaker, until about the year 
1808, when they were taken down and placed where 
they now are. 

Another Shield, containing the same Arms, is on the 
chimney-piece in the large Drawing-room upstairs. 

*** Upton and Signet, hamlets in Bur ford parish, and 
population included therein, half a mile distant W. 

The Burford and Fulbrook Magazine was started 
Sept. 1861. 



THE END. 



CHELTENHAM; 

R. EDWARDS, PRINTER AND BINDER. 396, HIGH STREET. 



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Layton, Rev. G. D. T Swinbrook Rectory 6 Copies. 

Lenthall, J. K., Esq Bessels Leigh, Berks. 

Lewin, Miss Southend, Kent. 

Mason, Mr Windrush 2 Copies. 

Mathews, Mr. J Burford. 

Mayou, J., Esq Monmouth. 

Mays, Miss Burford. 

Meredith, Mr Abergavenny 2 Copies, 

Mills, J., Esq Westwell 2 Copies. 

Minchin, Mr , Burford. 

Morris, Mr. T Witney. 



LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 

Nash, Mrs Eulbrook. 

Nunney, Mr. W Burford. 

Oakley, T. W., Esq Lydart, near Monmoutli. 

Packer, Mr, Burford. 

• Palmer, Mr do. 

Pinnell, John, Esq West well 

Pinnell, Joseph, Esq do. 

Pinnell, Miss Holwell. 

Porter, Mr Burford. 

Powell, Mr. W Bristol 2 Copies. 

Pratley, Mrs , Burford. 

Price, J. S., Esq do 4 Copies. 

Radburne, Mr. A do. 

Ravenor, — , Esq Witney. 

Read, W., Esq Taynton, near Burford. 

Reade, Rev. C Mag: Coll:, Oxford. 

ReiUy, Mr. 0' Burford. 

Richards, Miss do. 

Rose, Mr. D Holwell 2 Copies. 

Seeker, Mr. J Burford. 

Seeker, Mr. H do 2 Copies. 

Shepherd, Mr do. 

Spencer, H., Esq Easenhall Hall, nr, Rugby, 2 Copies. 

Sperrink, Mr. : Burford. 

Street, Mr do. 

Street, Mrs do. 

Stockdale, Rev. W Milton-under-Wychwood. 

Sylvester, Mr. J Eulbrook. 

Sylvester, Mr. P Burford. 

Sylvester, Mr Oxford 3 Copies. 

Sylvester, R,ev. E. T Shepton Mallet, Somersetshire. 



LIST Of SUBSCRIBERS. 



Taylor, — , Esq. 


Waterloo, near Bnrford. 




Titcomb, Mr. G. . . 


. . Bnrford, 






Titcomb, Mr. J. . .. 


do. 






Todd, Rev. E. J. . . 


Windrnsh. 






Townsend, Mrs. 


. Westhall Hill 






TJnwin, Miss 


Burford. 






Walker, W. 3 Esq. . . 


do. 






Waller, W, Esq. . . . 






5 Copies 


Waller, Mrs. . . . 


do 


• « > « i ■ 


2 Copies 


Walter, Mr 


do. 






Ward, W. H., Esq. . . 


do 




2 Copies 


Ward, W. S., Esq. . . 


Cheltenham. 






Watson, Mr 


London. 






Welbnrn, Rev. E. B. . 


Alvescott, near Bnrford. 




Westrope, Mr 


Bnrford. 




. 


Westwood, R., Esq. 


London. 






Wiggins, Mr. G. . . . 


Bnrford. 






Wiggins, Mr. Jos. . . 


do. 






Wiggins, Mr. J. 


do. 






Wiggins, Mr. W. S.. . 


. . do. 






Wilkinson, Miss 


. Witney. 






Willes, Miss 


Bnrford 




2 Copies. 


Williams, Mr 


. 393, High-st., 


Cheltenham. 


6 Copies. 


Willis, Mr. T. .. .. 


. . Enlbrook. 






Woods, A. W., Esq... 


. Heralds' Coll:, 


London. 





>R 24 *^ z 



